Compact blood culture apparatus
First Claim
1. A compact blood culture apparatus comprising:
- a housing;
a plurality of vials;
a drum rotatably mounted in said housing and having an axis disposed therein at an angle relative to a force of gravity, said drum being rotatable about said axis and includingmeans in said housing for rotating said drum about said axis;
means in said housing for detecting microorganisms within each of said plurality of vials in said drum using scattered photon migration;
means in said housing and on each vial for identifying each of said plurality of vials;
means in said drum for positioning each of said plurality of vials within a respective one of said plurality of bore-holes in an optimum orientation for identification by said identifying means; and
agitation means in said housing for activating rotation of said drum about said axis to perform agitation on said plurality of vials; and
said drum being constructed and arranged to simultaneously and continuously (i) move one of said plurality of vials through said detecting means and (ii) perform agitation on all of said plurality of vials when said drum is rotated about said axis.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to an apparatus for detecting biological activities in a large number of blood culture vials. The vials are placed in discrete disc-like segments and rotated about an axis of a drum. In one preferred embodiment, agitation results from placing the axis of rotation perpendicular to the force of gravity. The present invention allows for individual vial identification, and for the application of more than one non-invasive microorganism detection method including fluorescence and scattered photon migration. Only a single detection station for each method is required for each segment and a plurality of stations may share common components, reducing cost while increasing accuracy. The vials may be inserted into a segment using a quick disconnect method and a keying method is disclosed to guarantee the correct orientation of a vial once it is inserted.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. A compact blood culture apparatus comprising:
-
a housing; a plurality of vials; a drum rotatably mounted in said housing and having an axis disposed therein at an angle relative to a force of gravity, said drum being rotatable about said axis and including means in said housing for rotating said drum about said axis; means in said housing for detecting microorganisms within each of said plurality of vials in said drum using scattered photon migration; means in said housing and on each vial for identifying each of said plurality of vials; means in said drum for positioning each of said plurality of vials within a respective one of said plurality of bore-holes in an optimum orientation for identification by said identifying means; and agitation means in said housing for activating rotation of said drum about said axis to perform agitation on said plurality of vials; and said drum being constructed and arranged to simultaneously and continuously (i) move one of said plurality of vials through said detecting means and (ii) perform agitation on all of said plurality of vials when said drum is rotated about said axis. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A compact blood culture apparatus comprising:
-
a housing; a plurality of vials; a drum rotatably mounted in said housing and having an axis disposed therein, said drum being rotatable about said axis and including a plurality of segments with a plurality of bore-holes formed within each of said segments, each of said bore-holes constructed and arranged to receive one of said plurality of vials; means in said drum for positioning each of said plurality of vials within a respective one of said plurality of bore-holes in an optimum orientation for identification; agitation means in said housing for activating rotation of said drum about said axis to perform agitation on said plurality of vials; means in said housing for non-invasively detecting microorganisms within each of said plurality of vials in each of said segments in said drum using scattered photon migration; means on each vial for identifying each of said plurality of vials including a bar code label on an outer surface of each of said plurality of vials and label reader means in said housing for reading said bar code label; and said drum being arranged and constructed to simultaneously and continuously move (i) one of said plurality of vials through said detecting means to perform detection during rotation and (ii) perform agitation on all of said plurality of vials, when said drum is rotated about said axis. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
Specification