referring to fig1 a typical cpb circuit is indicated generally by reference numeral 10 . the patient is shown by numeral 12 . a venous cannula 13 inserted into the patient is connected into a fluid inlet tube 14 that directs blood from the patient to a venous reservoir 18 . another cannula 15 inserted in the patient is connected to another fluid inlet 16 that also leads from the patient to venous reservoir 18 . reservoir 18 may be a pole mounted unit or may be located on the heart - lung machine table , but in either case normally is the first fixed point in the circuit , lines 14 and 16 normally being flexible and long enough to allow surgeon and surgical assistants room to maneuver around the surgical table . the purpose of venous reservoir 18 is to accumulate the admitted blood for feeding the balance of the cpb circuit . the accumulator eliminates pump starvation and cessation of pump prime by providing a buffer from ebb and flow of blood from the patient . from the venous reservoir , plastic tubing 20 leads to the inlet side of a roller pump 22 . roller pump 22 has a hub 24 from which protrude two arms 26 . these arms impinge on the tubing 20 collapsing it . rotation of the pump hub 24 in the direction indicated by reference numeral 28 provides the desired flow direction and flow rate . the blood leaves the roller pump 22 through tubing 30 to the inlet of the oxygenator 32 . the blood can be thermally adjusted by passing it from the oxygenator 32 through tubing 34 into a heat exchanger 36 for heating or cooling before returning to the oxygenator 32 by tubing 38 . upon oxygenation , the blood exits the oxygenator in two ways . the first way is through tubing 40 to another roller pump 42 , from there pumped through tubing 44 to a cardioplegia system 46 , then to the patient 12 through outlet tubing 47 and a cannula 48 . the other mechanism with which the blood leaves the oxygenator 32 is through tubing 50 . a filter 52 is located on a side branch of this portion of the circuit . when it is desired to use the filter 52 , tubing 50 is clamped in the area noted by numeral 54 and the blood travels through the filter 52 before returning to the patient through outlet tubing 57 and a cannula 56 . the venous return reservoir 18 is the juncture of all blood removed from the patient . it is at this location where the improvement according to this invention suitably may be added to the cpb circuit , prior to the pump 22 and the blood treatment oxygenator 32 . fig2 depicts an extracorporeal blood treatment circuit in general , designated by reference numeral 11 , and in which reference numerals are the same for the like elements found in the specific cpb circuit shown in fig1 . reference numeral 41 represents a blood treatment component . in the case of a cpb apparatus as in fig1 blood treatment component 41 comprises at least oxygenator 32 and optionally also heat exchanger 36 with connecting tubing 34 , 38 and either or both of ( 1 ) the cardioplegia system 46 with associated second pump 42 and connecting tubing 40 , 44 , 47 and ( 2 ) the filter 52 with associated tubing 50 . numeral 17 indicates a blood fluid inlet generally and numeral 49 indicates a fluid outlet for blood return generally to the patient in fig2 . in accordance with this invention , blood treatment component 41 of the fluid circuit of the apparatus 11 , instead of being an oxygenation system as in fig1 suitably may be a heat exchange system 36 , a renal dialysis component for exchange of urea and other blood chemicals with a dialysate solution across an exchange membrane , or an organ perfusion component such as an ex vivo liver and perfusion support system tying into circuit interconnects 30 and 49 . in accordance with this invention , one of more feeds of nitric oxide are employed , as necessary in the particular circuit , to maintain the concentration of nitric oxide in the circulating extracorporeal blood at a dosage effective to produce the desired inhibition of platelet activation over a period of time sufficient for the journey through the extracorporeal circulation apparatus yet insufficient to sustain the inhibition after the blood is returned to the patient and desired dosages . fig3 depicts one such feed at the initial ( venous inlet ) portion of the circuit illustrated in fig1 . in this preferred embodiment of the invention , a gas permeable membrane 60 is located within a conduit 62 of the blood circuit located immediately downstream from the reservoir 18 . the gas permeable membrane 60 is elongated and tubular in form and is disposed longitudinally within conduit 62 adapted to come into contact with blood flowing through conduit 62 . a gaseous source , a mixture of nitric oxide and a carrier gas such as nitrogen , is housed in container 68 under high pressure . regulator 66 controls the output gas pressure to periodic driver 69 . the purpose of the periodic driver 69 is to induce a sinusoidal shaped pressure curve to the gas much like a &# 34 ; pulse &# 34 ;. the gas leaves the driver through tubing 64 and flows into the interior of gas permeable membrane 60 . due to the permeability of this membrane 60 to nitric oxide gas , the gas will diffuse through the membrane and dissolve in the blood plasma where it will come into contact with platelets . the membrane is selected to be impermeable to nitrogen and the nitrogen carrier gas will not diffuse through the membrane . coupled to the outlet of the membrane 60 is outlet tubing 61 , which is connected to valve 63 . valve 63 adjusts the back pressure of the system . from the valve 63 the carrier gas and any residual nitric oxide gas is carried through tube 65 into container 67 , which is filled with a scavenger liquid such as methylene blue . the gas mixture is allowed to bubble up through the container containing the scavenger liquid . the scavenger liquid absorbs any residual nitric oxide so that the only gas that escapes into the atmosphere is the carrier gas . blood guarded by dissolved nitric oxide exits conduit 62 and into tubing 20 where is passes by a conventional blood flow measuring device 90 . signals from blood flow measuring device 90 are transferred by line 92 to controller feedback logic component 94 which outputs a signal through line 96 to controller driver component 98 for controlling pressure and flow from regulator 66 . the controller system comprising units 90 , 94 and 98 with connecting lines 92 and 96 controls the flow of gas into membrane 60 in relation to the flow of blood through tubing 20 . in this manner , when the flow rate of the blood is low , the nitric oxide introduction is correspondingly and automatically reduced . conversely , in cases of high flow the nitric oxide introduction is correspondingly and automatically raised . the gas permeable membrane 62 has a gas permeable rate k which is dependent on the material of construction and the molecular characteristics of the gas . for nitric oxide , the gaseous release rate from membrane 60 is proportional to k , the exposed surface of the membrane to the blood , the internal gaseous pressure within the membrane and the hydraulic pressure of and gas tension of nitric oxide ( if any ) in the blood flowing by it . delivered molecular concentrations to the blood is calculated knowing the above plus the absorption coefficient of the blood to the nitric oxide . thus the controller controls the gas flow and at a level which , for the characteristics of membrane 60 and the absorption coefficient of nitric oxide gas at the temperature of the blood in the apparatus ( before thermal adjustment , if any ), is sufficient to provide an actual concentration of nitric oxide in solution effective in the presence of venous red blood cell blood hemoglobin to inhibit platelet activation . fig4 illustrates a longitudinal sectional view of the conduit 62 , the gas permeable membrane 60 and the tubing 64 . nitric oxide gas flows into the membrane 60 at location 70 . as the gas pressure inside the gas permeable membrane 60 exceeds the pressure of the blood within conduit 62 , nitric oxide gas will diffuse from the membrane into the blood stream as indicated by arrows 74 . the nitric oxide will be absorbed by the blood cellular components which will mediate the inflammatory response as described earlier . referring to fig5 which illustrates a cross section of fig3 along the line a -- a , the relationship between the geometry &# 39 ; s of the conduit 62 and gas permeable membrane 60 is as follows . the cross sectional area of the inside of conduit 62 minus the sectional area of the gas permeable membrane 60 ( such difference being referenced by numeral 76 ) is approximately equivalent to the cross section of the tubing elsewhere in the cpb circuit , ( i . e . the cross section of tubing element 20 ). with this relationship the blood is not subjected to an adverse pressure gradient in conduit 62 . longitudinally , the shape of the gas permeable membrane 60 follows that of the conduit 62 , again so that adverse pressure gradients are not imparted into the circuit . fig6 illustrates another preferred embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment a carrier gas is not used so that container 68 holds a 100 % concentration of nitric oxide . a pulse drive generator 69 is not shown but may be present . in this embodiment , there is no outlet conduit of membrane 60 . as pressure builds up in conduit 60 , the nitric oxide diffuses into the bloodstream as previously described . because there are no residual carrier gas molecules , there is no need for a return . simply stated , components 61 , 63 , 65 , and 67 of the embodiment depicted in fig2 are absent at the distal end of membrane 60 and the tube 62 in this configuration . as in the embodiment depicted in fig3 a controller comprising components 90 , 94 and 98 with connections 92 and 96 controls the concentration of nitric oxide in solution in the blood . fig8 illustrates a cross sectional view b -- b of fig7 with the same numbers used in the same way as in fig5 . the above embodiments illustrate an optimal configuration of the invention in which the blood flows around the external portion of a gas permeable membrane 60 . while it is within the scope of this invention that the system can be configured so that the gas is on the external portion of the membrane and blood is flowed within the membrane , in low gas pressure conditions some membranes dilate , increasing the cross sectional area of the membrane and lowering blood flow through that portion of the apparatus , and in high gas pressure conditions , some membranes might collapse , reducing blood flow . in the preferred embodiments , if gas flow is zero , the membrane might collapse but it would not occlude or preclude blood flow . fig9 depicts another embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment the nitric oxide feed is to reservoir 18 . the feed comprises a diffuser 100 for diffusing nitric oxide gas into the reservoir , and comprises a regulator 66 for controlling gas pressure and rate of flow into the reservoir and a driver 69 for delivering the nitric oxide gas into reservoir 18 through inlet 64 in a pulsatile manner . suitably diffuser 100 comprises a membrane or filter 80 that is not permeable to blood and is permeable to nitric oxide gas through which nitric oxide gas is introduced into the reservoir . as in the embodiment depicted in fig3 and 6 , a controller comprising components 90 , 94 and 98 with connections 92 and 96 controls the concentration of nitric oxide in solution in the blood . it is important that the location of the nitric oxide feed be close to the patient cannulation point as possible in the extracorporeal circuit to reduce so much as practicable the period of exposure of platelets to non - endothelial surfaces . at least one feed location is described generally as upstream of the pump that is needed to circulate the blood extracorporeally through the system and back to the patient . with reference to the fig2 that point is anywhere in line 15 . in fig3 - 9 , which involve a cpb circuit where blood from two inlets 14 and 16 is pooled in reservoir 18 , either the reservoir or the tubing immediately past the reservoir is selected for initial introduction of the nitric oxide , for the practical reason that these are the closest stationary locations in the system to the patient source of blood and also because control of nitric oxide introduction is most readily accomplished in the reservoir or in the blood filled lines in the immediately downstream tubing under the influence of a pump as opposed to in the blood inlet lines where lines are mobile to allow access to the surgical field , and especially in the case of blood suctioned from the operative field where intermittent blood and air flow occurs . the closest stationary location will vary according to the blood treatment component 41 involved in the use of this invention . because of the very short half life of nitric oxide in the blood , additional feeds may be used further downstream to maintain the desired nitric oxide concentration in the blood without overdosing the blood in but one location . the foregoing embodiments in fig3 - 9 therefore only illustrate examples of the invention as applied to cpb , and are not to be taken as limiting the scope of the invention , which is defined in the appended claims .
patient blood in an extracorporeal flow circuit is contacted with one or more nitric oxide feeds at least one of which is upstream of the circuit pump , to provide a concentration of nitric oxide in the blood effective to inhibit activation of blood platelets and reduce whole body inflammation of the patient as a result of a procedure using the extracorporeal circulation .