SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING AN AMOUNT OF FUNGAL PARTICLES IN AIR

• US 20190331557A1
• Filed: 11/12/2017
• Published: 10/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Company Oy Fiseca Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Juha Hakala, Tuomo Partanen
• Inventors: MAKELA, Hannu
• Granted Patent: US 11,047,772 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2200/0631 Purification arrangements, e.g. solid phase extraction [SPE]
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2200/0652 Sorting or classification of particles or molecules
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2200/10 Integrating sample preparation and analysis in single entity, e.g. lab-on-a-chip concept
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/0636 Integrated biosensor, microarrays
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/0681 Filter
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 5/02 Gas collection apparatus, e.g. by bubbling under water for sampling G01N1/22
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 1/2202 involving separation of sample components during sampling
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 1/2205 with filters
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 1/4044 by chemical techniques; Digestion; Chemical decomposition
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 1/4077 by other techniques involving separation of suspended solids
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 1/44 Sample treatment involving radiation, e.g. heat
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/0656 using electric, e.g. electrostatic methods or magnetic methods by investigating individual particles G01N15/1031, G01N15/12
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2001/2223 aerosol sampling devices
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2001/4088 filtration
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2015/0046 in gas, e.g. smoke
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2015/019 Biological contaminants; Fouling
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/21 Polarisation-affecting properties G01N21/19 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/31 Investigating relative effect of material at wavelengths characteristic of specific elements or molecules, e.g. atomic absorption spectrometry G01N21/72 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/77 by observing the effect on a chemical indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2333/37 from fungi
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/74 : of fluids G01N24/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/56961 : Plant cells or fungi

Abstract

A system for determining an amount of fungal particles in air in a building includes including: an air inlet connected to a filter for filtering particles having a size of 1-120 μm; means for collecting fungal particles from the filtered particles and transferring the collected fungal particles to at least one sample cuvette; means for dry denaturation of the fungal particles; means for producing a voltage change of the dry denaturised fungal particles and means for detection of voltage changes caused by the dry denaturised fungal particles to obtain voltage change data; means for collecting a sample; means for wet denaturation of the fungal particles subsequent to the detection of voltage changes. The system further includes at least two of means for immunological detection of the fungal species in the sample to obtain immunological data; means for measuring glucose concentration of the sample to obtain glucose concentration data; means for measuring light emission of the sample to obtain light emission data.

Claims

1. A system for determining an amount of fungal particles in air in a building, comprising:

an air inlet connected to a filter for filtering particles having a size of 1-120 μ

m,

means for collecting fungal particles from the filtered particles and transferring the collected fungal particles to at least one sample chamber,

means for dry denaturation of the fungal particles,

means for producing a voltage change of the dry denaturised fungal particles and means for detection of voltage changes caused by the dry denaturised fungal particles to obtain voltage change data,

means for collecting a sample of the dry denaturised fungal particles,

means for wet denaturation of the sample,

wherein the system further comprises at least two of

means for immunological detection of the fungal species in the sample to obtain immunological data,

means for measuring glucose concentration of the sample to obtain glucose concentration data,

means for measuring light emission of the sample to obtain light emission data,

and the system comprises means for collecting and transmitting the obtained data to a processor, the processor comprising a database of reference data and being configured to compare the reference data to the obtained data for determining the amount of fungal particles in air in the building.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the means for collecting fungal particles from the filtered particles is selected from a filter, a condensation plate and a bubbler liquid filter.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the means for immunological detection is a group of at least two species specific antigen based immunological test strips.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the means for measuring glucose concentration comprises means for treating the sample using temperature and reduced pH and the means is selected from means based on chemical indication, optical polarisation, blue light absorption or magnetic mutual inductance.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein the means for measuring light emission comprises means for treating the sample using increased pH, solvent and at least one light emission aiding component, excitation means and optical emission measurement means.

6. A system according to claim 1, further comprising means for measuring flow of air at an air outlet of the means for collecting fungal particles.

7. A system according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of a thermometer for obtaining temperature data, means for measuring relative air water content for obtaining relative air water content data and means for measuring absolute air water content for obtaining absolute air water content.

8. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a user interface for displaying the determined amount of fungal particles.

9. A system according to claim 1, further comprising means for raising an alert when the amount of fungal particles in air deviates from target amount of fungal particles in air by a pre-defined amount.

10. A system according to claim 1, wherein the means for detection of voltage changes caused by the fungal particles is based on at least one of electrochemical detection and electrophysical detection.

11. A method for determining an amount of fungal particles in air in a building, comprising:

periodically injecting a sample of air to a filter for filtering particles having a size of 1-120 μ

m,

collecting fungal particles from the filtered particles,

transferring the collected fungal particles to a sample chamber,

dry denaturising the fungal particles,

detecting voltage changes caused by the denatured fungal particles,

collecting a sample of the denatured fungal particles,

wet denaturising the sample,

analysing the sample in parallel by at least two analysis methods, wherein the analysis methods are selected from immunological detection, glucose measurement and light emission measurement, to obtain measurement data, and

comparing reference data to obtained measurement data.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the filtered particles have a size of 1-40 μ

m.