Sealing device and method for inhibition of flow in capillary measuring devices
First Claim
1. A sealable chamber device comprising a hollow chamber having a sample intake port at a first end and an exhaust port at a second end, said hollow chamber having walls forming a first chamber portion starting at said intake port, and a reduced chamber portion having walls forming a cross-sectional area less than said first chamber portion from said exhaust port to said first chamber portion and a sufficient amount of aqueous expandable polymer in said reduced chamber portion which forms a seal in said reduced chamber portion upon contact of the polymer with an aqueous medium.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A channel or chamber device having means for inhibiting flow of aqueous medium therein after the channel or chamber has been filled with aqueous medium. The device has a channel or chamber with a sample intake port at one end and an exhaust port at the other end. A restricted or reduced size chamber portion having reduced dimension (height, cross-sectional area or diameter) toward the exhaust port is provided with a water-expandable polymer in the restricted or reduced size chamber portion. The water-expandable polymer inhibits flow or forms a seal in the exhaust port when the polymer is contacted with an aqueous medium. The channel or chamber device having means for inhibiting flow of aqueous medium therein is especially adaptable to capillaries used in medical diagnostic measuring devices which contain an analytical reagent for biological fluids, such as saliva and plasma.
440 Citations
33 Claims
- 1. A sealable chamber device comprising a hollow chamber having a sample intake port at a first end and an exhaust port at a second end, said hollow chamber having walls forming a first chamber portion starting at said intake port, and a reduced chamber portion having walls forming a cross-sectional area less than said first chamber portion from said exhaust port to said first chamber portion and a sufficient amount of aqueous expandable polymer in said reduced chamber portion which forms a seal in said reduced chamber portion upon contact of the polymer with an aqueous medium.
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12. A flow measuring device comprising a first chamber having walls forming a sample intake port at one end and a second chamber having walls forming a reduced cross-sectional area contiguous with and at the other end of said first chamber, said second chamber having walls forming an exhaust port contiguous with said second chamber and disposed opposite said sample intake port;
- an analytical reagent for medical diagnostics disposed in said first chamber;
a water-expandable polymer sealing means disposed in said second chamber;
means for passing an aqueous medium from said sample intake port through said first chamber to said second chamber; and
means for contacting the water-expandable polymer sealing means with an aqueous medium, thereby causing the polymer to expand and form a seal in said second chamber. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
- an analytical reagent for medical diagnostics disposed in said first chamber;
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22. A method for inhibiting the flow of an aqueous medium in a channel having a sample intake port at one end and an exhaust port at the other end, comprising:
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a providing a channel having walls forming a reduced size in the channel at or proximal the exhaust port end of said channel; and b. adding a sufficient amount of water-expandable hydrophilic polymer to that portion of the channel having a reduced size, to inhibit flow through said exhaust port upon contact of the polymer with an aqueous medium. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification