Apparatus for making a plurality of reagent mixtures and analyzing particle distributions of the reagent mixtures
First Claim
1. An apparatus for making a plurality of reagent mixtures for hematology testing and analyzing particle distributions within the reagent mixtures for blood cell analysis, comprising:
- at least one pump;
a plurality of reagent chambers containing a plurality of reagent-mixture components, including at least a plurality of lysing agents, selectively connectable in fluid communication with the at least one pump;
a mixing chamber coupled in fluid communication with the at least one pump for receiving a plurality of reagent-mixture components and creating a reagent mixture therefrom;
a sensing unit defining a counting orifice for receiving the reagent mixture and analyzing a particle distribution of the reagent mixture; and
a control unit for adjusting the reagent mixture to correspond to each of a plurality of different operator inputs, the control unit being coupled to the at least one pump for controlling operation of the pump, and responsive to each respective operator input to;
(i) select one or more lysing agents from a database containing a plurality of lysing agents,(ii) select a predetermined volume of the at least one selected lysing agent to correspond to said input,(iii) pump the predetermined volume of the at least one selected lysing agent, and a predetermined volume of at least one other reagent-mixture component corresponding to said input into the mixing chamber to thereby create a reagent mixture corresponding to said input, and(iv) introduce the reagent mixture from the mixing chamber through the counting orifice to analyze a particle distribution of the reagent mixture for blood cell analysis.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus is provided for hematology testing, which has a sensing unit defining a counting orifice for the flow of a blood sample through the counting orifice to analyze the blood sample, and a pump unit having three syringes. A first syringe is coupled in fluid communication with the sensing unit on the inlet side of the counting orifice for injecting a stream of blood sample through the counting orifice. A second syringe is coupled in fluid communication with the sensing chamber on the inlet side of the counting orifice for simultaneously injecting a sheath of fluid surrounding the sample stream on the inlet side of the counting orifice. And a third syringe is coupled to the sensing chamber on the outlet side of the counting orifice for aspirating a sheath of fluid from the sensing chamber surrounding the sample stream on the outlet side of the counting orifice. A control unit is connected to the pump unit for adjusting the reagent mixture to correspond to each of a plurality of different operator inputs, wherein each operator input may correspond to a respective animal species, to automatically create and analyze the reagent mixture for each animal species.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. An apparatus for making a plurality of reagent mixtures for hematology testing and analyzing particle distributions within the reagent mixtures for blood cell analysis, comprising:
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at least one pump; a plurality of reagent chambers containing a plurality of reagent-mixture components, including at least a plurality of lysing agents, selectively connectable in fluid communication with the at least one pump; a mixing chamber coupled in fluid communication with the at least one pump for receiving a plurality of reagent-mixture components and creating a reagent mixture therefrom; a sensing unit defining a counting orifice for receiving the reagent mixture and analyzing a particle distribution of the reagent mixture; and a control unit for adjusting the reagent mixture to correspond to each of a plurality of different operator inputs, the control unit being coupled to the at least one pump for controlling operation of the pump, and responsive to each respective operator input to; (i) select one or more lysing agents from a database containing a plurality of lysing agents, (ii) select a predetermined volume of the at least one selected lysing agent to correspond to said input, (iii) pump the predetermined volume of the at least one selected lysing agent, and a predetermined volume of at least one other reagent-mixture component corresponding to said input into the mixing chamber to thereby create a reagent mixture corresponding to said input, and (iv) introduce the reagent mixture from the mixing chamber through the counting orifice to analyze a particle distribution of the reagent mixture for blood cell analysis. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus for making a plurality of reagent mixtures for hematology testing and analyzing particle distributions within the reagent mixtures for blood cell analysis, comprising:
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means for pumping predetermined volumes of a plurality of reagent-mixture components, including at least a plurality of lysing agents, to create a plurality of reagent mixtures; means for sensing particle distributions of the reagent mixtures for blood cell analysis; and means for adjusting the reagent mixtures to correspond to each of a plurality of different operator inputs, said adjusting means selecting one or more of a plurality of lysing agents and controlling the pumping means in response to each input to adjust the predetermined volume of the at least one selected lysing agent to correspond to the respective input and thereby make a reagent mixture corresponding to the input, said adjusting means further controlling the pumping means to introduce the reagent mixture through the sensing means to sense a particle distribution of the reagent mixture for blood cell analysis. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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11. An apparatus for making a plurality of reagent mixtures and analyzing particle distributions of the reagent mixtures, comprising:
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at least one pump; a sensing unit defining a counting orifice for receiving a reagent mixture and analyzing a particle distribution of the reagent mixture; and means for adjusting a reagent mixture including at least one lysing agent to correspond to each of a plurality of different operator inputs, said adjusting means selecting one or more lysing agents from a plurality of lysing agents, and controlling the at least one pump in response to each input to pump a predetermined volume of the at least one selected lysing agent and a predetermined volume of at least one other reagent-mixture component corresponding to the respective input, said adjusting means further controlling the at least one pump to intermix the predetermined quantities of the components and thereby create the reagent mixture corresponding to the respective input, and to introduce the reagent mixture through the counting orifice of the sensing unit for sensing a particle distribution of the reagent mixture. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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Specification