Introducer sheath with electrodes for use in bleed detection
An introducer includes a sheath for introducing a catheter into a blood vessel at an insertion site and a plurality of electrodes on the sheath. The introducer also includes an impedance assessment unit connected to the electrodes. The impedance assessment unit includes a power source and a wireless transceiver and is configured to inject one of a predetermined current or voltage across a first pair of electrodes and to measure the other of the current or voltage across a second pair of electrodes. The impedance assessment unit also is configured to perform at least one: wirelessly transmit current and voltage values to an external apparatus for detection of a bleed, and compute an impedance based on the current and voltage and wirelessly transmit the computed impedance to the external apparatus for detection of the bleed.
1. An introducer, comprising:
a sheath for introducing a catheter into a blood vessel at an insertion site;
a plurality of electrodes on the sheath; and
an impedance assessment unit connected to said electrodes, said impedance assessment unit includes a power source and a wireless transceiver and is configured to:
inject one of a predetermined current or voltage across a first pair of electrodes and to measure the other of the current or voltage across a second pair of electrodes; and
perform at least one: wirelessly transmit current and voltage values to an external apparatus for detection of a bleed, and compute an impedance based on the current and voltage and wirelessly transmit the computed impedance to the external apparatus for detection of the bleed.
2. The introducer of claim 1 wherein the impedance assessment unit is configured to serially inject the predetermined current or voltage at multiple predetermined frequencies.
3. The introducer of claim 1 wherein the wireless transceiver in the impedance assessment unit is a bi-directional wireless transceiver.
4. The introducer of claim 3 wherein the impedance assessment unit is configured to receive a command via the wireless transceiver to initiate injection of the predetermined current or voltage.
5. The introducer of claim 3 wherein the impedance assessment unit is configured to receive a command via the wireless transceiver to program an amplitude or frequency of the current or voltage.
6. The introducer of claim 1 wherein the impedance assessment unit is configured to compute multiple impedance values and average the multiple impedance values together.
7. The introducer of claim 1 wherein the impedance assessment unit is configured to compute multiple impedance values and compare the multiple impedance values to a previously computed impedance value.
8. The introducer of claim 1 wherein the impedance assessment unit is configured to compute multiple impedance values and compute a time rate of change of the computed impedance values relative to a previously computed impedance value.
9. An apparatus, comprising:
an introducer usable to insert a catheter into a blood vessel, said introducer comprising a hollow sheathe to receive the catheter when inserting the catheter into the blood vessel;
a first electrode provided on the sheathe;
a second electrode; and
a measuring device to which the first and second electrodes are coupled, the measuring device to detect a blood clot by measuring the impedance or conduction velocity between the first electrode on the sheathe and the second electrode.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the sheath comprises a tubular member and the first electrode is provided on a surface of the tubular member.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the measuring device is to detect a blood clot within the tubular member by measuring the impedance or conduction velocity between the first electrode and the second electrode.
12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the second electrode is provided on the sheathe.
13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the measuring device is to detect a blood clot by comparing the impedance or conduction velocity to a threshold.