Pulsatile flow delivery apparatus

Claim 1

A pulsatile flow delivery apparatus, comprising: (a) a horse shoe shaped raceway having an inner side of a prescribed curvature; (b) a tube for flowing a fluid therethrough, said tube having a pump head portion disposed along the inner side of said raceway; (c) milking means comprising a pivot shaft, a rotating arm fixedly secured to said shaft and a single milking roller rotatably mounted on one end of said rotating arm, said milking means being disposed so that, as said rotating arm rotates, said milking roller travels along the inner side of said raceway to squeeze said pump head portion of said tube against said raceway, to thereby milk the pump head portion intermittently as said rotating arm rotates; (d) occlusive clamp means for opening and closing a portion of said tube downstream said pump head portion, said clamp means including a stationary component, a mobile component disposed in opposed relation to said stationary component, and an actuator connected to said mobile component for moving said mobile component toward and away from said stationary component to clamp and release said downstream portion of said tube; and (e) control means connected to said actuator of said clamp means for controlling timing for opening and closing said clamp means to thereby cause said fluid to flow from said tube in a pulsatile fashion, said control means comprising inlet sensing means for producing an inlet signal to open said clamp means after said roller travels a predetermined curvature angle along said raceway, and outlet sensing means for producing an outlet signal to close said clamp means just before said roller leaves said raceway.