An Adaptive Drug Infusion System

Background: In order to reduce the overall size and power consumption of ambulatory drug infusion systems, and to provide higher delivery accuracy, faster start-up, and more rapid occlusion detection, a non-contacting, low-power thermal time-of-flight technology has been used to provide a pressure-based miniature wearable drug infusion system that automatically compensates in real time for changes in pressure, viscosity, and flow path geometry. Methods: Prototypes have been designed, built, and tested on the bench and on animals. Results: For liquid volumes ranging from 30 nL to 100 μL, the measured accuracy and precision of delivery were better than 1%. Tests on 30-kg swine showed delivery within the study accuracy. Conclusions: The performance of the prototypes demonstrates that real-time compensation of flow variables provides significant performance improvements in therapeutic infusion.