Application requirements
When applied inside the human body, the flexible bioresorbable patches follow the shape of the body tissue to which they are attached. They have to keep their sealing function for the wound healing period after which the human body will resorb the patch.
To test the patches as realistically as possible after manufacturing, the conditions inside the human body at the intended location of the patch have to be simulated. Therefore, a setup is necessary that operates at a conditioned temperature, and that has the ability to determine accurately which small pressure difference the patch can withstand when supplying a controlled flow of simulated body fluid to one side of the patch. This requires a combined flow-pressure control of the setup.
Every organ in the human body operates at, and needs to withstand different pressures calling for a setup with a large, but very precise pressure and flow range.
To get an idea of the pressure values we are dealing with here: Pressure in the brain is very low (mbar range), while blood pressure is much higher. A typical systolic blood pressure value of 120 stands for the pressure of 120 mmHg (or about 0.16 bar) that acts on the blood vessel wall, each time the heart contracts. This systolic pressure is an overpressure, i.e. it indicates how much the absolute blood pressure is higher than the ambient air pressure outside your body. Such a value for the overpressure is typical, but you also may have to deal with people under surgery who have a high blood pressure. So the maximum pressure difference that the patch has to withstand is higher.