Method to determine the sedimentation of blood and relative device
First Claim
1. Method to determine the speed of sedimentation of corpuscles present in a sample of blood, the method being carried out on a sample consisting of blood to which any anti-coagulant substance has been added and which is suitably homogenized, the method comprising the steps of measuring an optical density, or absorbance, of a homogenized sample of blood to which an anticoagulant has been added, as a function of time and without waiting for the formation of a plasma/corpuscle interface to obtain an optical density measurement, the measuring step being carried out at any fixed point of a reading container defining a containing chamber of an inner diameter of between 0.1 and 2.0 mm which contains a micro-volume of the sample of blood, the inner diameter of the containing chamber ensuring a linear relationship between the optical density and the number of corpuscles present in the sample of blood, and wherein the reading container is subjected to centrifuging during the measuring step;
- and processing said optical density measurement to obtain a speed of sedimentation of corpuscles in the blood sample.
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Abstract
Method and apparatus to determine the sedimentation of blood. A blood sample is taken, and an anti-coagulant substance is added. The sample is homogenized. The method includes a step of measuring an optical density, or absorbance, of the sample as a function of time and without waiting for the formation of a plasma/corpuscle interface to obtain an optical density measurement. The measurements are carried out at any fixed point of a reading container which contains a micro-volume of blood. The inner diameter of the containing chamber ensures a linear relationship between the optical density and the number of corpuscles present. Finally, the optical density measurement is processsed to obtain a speed of sedimentation.
62 Citations
26 Claims
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1. Method to determine the speed of sedimentation of corpuscles present in a sample of blood, the method being carried out on a sample consisting of blood to which any anti-coagulant substance has been added and which is suitably homogenized, the method comprising the steps of measuring an optical density, or absorbance, of a homogenized sample of blood to which an anticoagulant has been added, as a function of time and without waiting for the formation of a plasma/corpuscle interface to obtain an optical density measurement, the measuring step being carried out at any fixed point of a reading container defining a containing chamber of an inner diameter of between 0.1 and 2.0 mm which contains a micro-volume of the sample of blood, the inner diameter of the containing chamber ensuring a linear relationship between the optical density and the number of corpuscles present in the sample of blood, and wherein the reading container is subjected to centrifuging during the measuring step;
- and processing said optical density measurement to obtain a speed of sedimentation of corpuscles in the blood sample.
- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. Method to determine the speed of sedimentation of corpuscles present in a sample of blood, the method being carried out on a sample of blood to which an anti-coagulant has been added, comprising the steps of:
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homogenizing and adding an anti-coagulant to a sample of blood and feeding the sample of blood to be analyzed into a reading container; centrifuging the sample of blood about an axis perpendicular to a plane of positioning of the reading container; emitting and monitoring an electromagnetic radiation at a fixed point of the reading container holding the blood sample, while centrifuging to measure development, over a period of time, of an optical density of the sample of blood analyzed without waiting for the formation of a plasma/corpuscle interface to obtain the optical density measurement; processing optical density signals as a function of a period of time; displaying speed of sedimentation results obtained from the processed optical density signals; and discharging the analyzed sample of blood from the reading container. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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11. Device for determining the speed of sedimentation of corpuscles in blood, comprising, at least one means for feeding a homogenized sample of blood to which an anti-coagulant has been added to a reading container set in rotation about an axis perpendicular to a plane of positioning of the reading container by a means for centrifuging, an emitting and monitoring assembly to emit and monitor electromagnetic radiations, wherein said assembly is positioned at a fixed point perpendicular to a plane of positioning of the reading container, a means for acquiring optical density data and a programming, processing and control assembly;
- wherein the reading container defines a containing chamber having an inner diameter between 0.1 and 2 mm and wherein optical density data measurements are acquired without waiting for a plasma/corpuscle interface to form in the sample of blood.
- View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
Specification