NON-INVASIVE SENSOR FOR DETERMINING A HEARTBEAT AND/OR HEART RATE IN A SEGMENT OF AN EXTRACORPOREAL BLOOD CIRCUIT

摘要

Non-invasive heartbeat sensor for determining a heart rate in a conduit of an extracorporeal blood treatment apparatus, comprising one source for directing an optical signal towards the blood flowing in the segment; one detector for receiving an optical informative signal comprising the signal emitted by said source after passing the blood, and emitting respective output signal; a controller receiving the respective output signal and retrieving a heartbeat frequency and a heart rate value, based on the output signal, wherein the informative signal is altered by flow perturbation of the blood partially generated by the flow impulses originated by the heart.