Use of fluid aspiration/dispensing tip as a microcentrifuge tube

Abstract

A fluid aspirating / dispensing member includes a sample cavity for sample acquisition and a sealable cavity that, once sealed, permits the separation of particles from the remainder of a fluid sample within the sample cavity after centrifugation or other separation means. The fluid aspirating / dispensing members, either individually or as part of an array, increase the efficiency of sample processing before analysis by a clinical analyzer.

Description

FIELD OF THE APPLICATION[0001]This application relates to an apparatus and a method for sample collection and centrifugation within a single, disposable fluid aspirating / dispensing member.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Combinational clinical analyzers containing both “wet” and “dry” chemistry platforms in a single apparatus for the testing of biological samples, such as whole blood serum, are now widely used in most modern health care facilities.[0003]So-called “dry” chemistry systems commonly include a sample supply, a number of sample containers, a metering / transport mechanism, and an incubator having a plurality of test read stations as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,158, the contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. A typical protocol starts with the aspiration of a known quantity of a sample into a fluid aspirating / dispensing member. An aliquot of the sample is then dispensed onto a dry slide element which is then loaded in...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016]The aspirating / dispensing member can further contain a separation barrier or reagents for agglutination within the internal volume of each member.

[0039]The previously described embodiments have many advantages, including the ability to perform sample collection and particle separation using either individual disposable fluid aspirating / dispensing members or a fluid aspirating / dispensing plate comprising a plurality of fluid aspirating / dispensing members. The methods described herein reduce handling errors as well as the time spent for sample processing before analysis by clinical analyzers. Sample processing using the herein described fluid aspirating / dispensing member is therefore faster than conventional methods known in the art.

Problems solved by technology

Despite the progress that has been made, these systems still require that patient samples be first processed to remove particulate components before presentation to a clinical analyzer.

This processing step remains cumbersome, time consuming and limits the overall efficiency of these analyzers.

Each one of these references suffers, however, from one or more of the following disadvantages: the references fail to remedy the inefficient processing of patient samples prior to clinical analysis and also fail to describe a fluid aspirating / dispensing member that permits both sample collection and centrifugation.

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