SERUM/PLASMA ISOLATOR CUP

• US 3,807,955 A
• Filed: 04/15/1971
• Issued: 04/30/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Evelyn J. Walker, Thomas N. Note Jr
• Original Assignee: Evelyn J. Walker, Thomas N. Note Jr
• Inventors: Note, Thomas N. Jr., Walker, Evelyn J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Scovronek, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US05/134,148
• Time in Patent Office: 1,111 Days
• Field of Search: 23/230,23B,253,259,292 220/23.6,42B,97C 215/6 195/139VS 206/65K,1.5,84
• US Class Current: 436/177
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/5082 Test tubes per se
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 436/25375 Liberation or purification of sample or separation of material from a sample [e.g., filtering, centrifuging, etc.]

Abstract

A cup to hold the serum or plasma (fluid portion) separated from the cells after blood drawn from a patient has been placed into a sample tube and centrifuged. The blood may be drawn directly from the patient into the sample tube or may be transferred into the tube after being drawn from the patient by other means. The cup containing the fluid portion is inserted in the said tube containing the cells and snapped into place, thus isolating the fluid portion from the cells but retaining it in the tube identified with the patient. Such cup has a base which is rounded or of a form that will not be free standing, the purpose being to insure that it will only be placed in the open end of the tube to alleviate the danger of confusion of samples. The cup base is also designed to serve as a cap for another cup.

Claims

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein the outer surface of the lower end of the tubular section of the cup has a slight taper inwardly and conforms in shape to the inner tapered surface of the said cup, whereby the lower end of the said cup can be press fit into the open end of any other like cup.

3. A method for retaining together, but isolated from each other, the fluid portion and the cells of a blood sample comprising placing a blood sample drawn from a patient in a sample tube;

separating the fluid portion and the cells into layers with the cells at the bottom and the fluid portion above;

removing the fluid portion from the tube and placing it into an isolator cup made of thin walled plastic and having a cylindrical tubular section, an open top end with a lip extending around such top end and a closed bottom end which is curved so as not to be free-standing, the outer surface of the tubular section conforming in size and shape to the inside of the top of the sample tube, the upper wall of the said cup below the said lip having a tapered surface adapted to contact and form a press fit with the upper inner wall of the said sample tube; and

inserting the isolator cup containing the fluid portion into the top of the sample tube containing the cells with the cup resting on its top lip within said sample tube and the tops of the cup and tube press fit together to form an integral unit for handling in an analytical system designed to process the sample and to identify the unit as belonging to a specific patient from whom the sample was taken.

4. The method of claim 3 in which the said first isolator cup is capped with a second isolator cup similar to the first cup to prevent evaporation of the fluid portion of the first cup, the outer surface of the lower end of the tubular section of the second cup having a slight taper inwardly and conforming in shape to the open end of the first cup.