ANALYTICAL SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ITS OPERATION

• US 20110212532A1
• Filed: 05/10/2011
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Roche Diabetes Care Inc. (Roche Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Roche Diagnostics Operations Incorporated (Roche Holding AG)
• Inventors: Harttig, Herbert
• Granted Patent: US 8,535,608 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 436/95
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/4875 Details of handling test elements, e.g. dispensing or storage, not specific to a particular test method test-elements per se B01L, automatic analysers G01N35/00, in-vivo analysis on the human body for medical diagnosis A61B
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 436/144444 Glucose

Abstract

An analytical system comprising a replaceable magazine (12) for providing a plurality of test units that react to an analyte and a measuring device (14) for processing the test units, wherein the magazine (12) is provided with a code (26) that can be registered by the measuring device (14). In order to enable the simplest possible coding, it is proposed that the code (26) comprises an unique magazine identifier (28) for the magazine (12) and that the measuring device (14) has a magazine-independent test counter (16) which registers the processing of a test unit and a counter memory (18) to store the magazine identifier (28) and a corresponding count of the test counter (16).

Claims

1. Analytical system especially for carrying out patient self-monitoring such as blood sugar tests comprising a replaceable magazine for providing a plurality of test units that react to an analyte and a measuring device for processing the test units, wherein the magazine is provided with a code that can be registered by the measuring device, characterized in that the code comprises an unique magazine identifier for the magazine and that the measuring device has a magazine-independent test counter which registers the processing of a test unit and a counter memory to store the magazine identifier and a corresponding count of the test counter.

2. Analytical system according to claim 1, characterized in that the test counter contains an arithmetic unit which updates the count stored for the registered magazine identifier of a magazine according to the consumption of test units.

3. Analytical system according to claim 1, characterized in that the count gives the number of test units of a respective magazine that are used or are still available.

4. Analytical system according to claim 1, characterized in that the count for the magazine in use can be displayed for the user on a display.

5. Analytical system according to claim 1, characterized in that the counter memory has a plurality of storage locations for the storage of a plurality of magazine identifiers and associated counts.

6. Analytical system according to claim 5, characterized in that the test counter has a comparator to compare the magazine identifier that is read in with the magazine identifiers that are present in the counter memory.

7. Analytical system according to claim 6, characterized in that the test counter allocates an initial count to a magazine identifier of a newly inserted magazine that has not yet been stored.

8. Analytical system according to claim 6, characterized in that when the magazine identifier of a newly inserted magazine agrees with a stored magazine identifier, the test counter reads out the corresponding count in the counter memory and continues to count.

9. Analytical system according to claim 1, characterized in that the measuring device comprises an optical, magnetic, electric or electromagnetic code reader to register at least the magazine identifier.

10. Analytical system according to claim 1, characterized in that the code can be attached to the magazine as a bar-code in particular a 2-D bar-code, magnetic strip, electronic memory component, in particular an EPROM or transponder.

11. Analytical system according to claim 1, characterized in that the code includes the total count of test units of a magazine.

12. Analytical system according to claim 1, characterized by a hand-held device to exchange a magazine as a consumable unit.

13. Analytical system according to claim 1, characterized in that the test units are in the form of a test tape or test strip to which body fluid can be applied.

14. Method for operating an analytical system, especially for carrying out patient self-monitoring such as blood sugar tests in which a plurality of test units that react to an analyte are provided by a replaceable magazine and the test units are processed in a measuring device, characterized in that an unique magazine identifier of the magazine is registered, the magazine identifier is allocated a count for the number of used or available test units of the magazine in a counter memory and when a test unit has been processed, the counter reading is advanced without intervention on the magazine.