Methods and apparatus for extracting and analyzing a component of a bodily fluid

A system for periodically drawing a blood sample from a patient and analyzing the composition of at least one component of said blood sample, said system comprising:

• a fluid passageway having a distal end which is configured to be inserted into the vasculature of a patient;
• a sample analysis chamber in fluid communication with said fluid passageway;
• an infusion fluid source in fluid communication with said fluid passageway, said source containing an infusion fluid;
• a pump unit, said pump unit having a first mode in which said pump unit infuses said infusion fluid into said patient via said fluid passageway, and a second mode in which said pump unit is operable to draw a blood sample from said patient via said first fluid passageway and toward said sample analysis chamber;
• a separator configured to remove at least one component from said blood sample before said sample is analyzed by said analyte detection system;
• and
• a spectroscopic analyte detection system configured to analyze said at least one component while at least a portion of said at least one component is in said sample analysis chamber, and determine a concentration of at least one analyte.

A fluid handling and analysis system, said system comprising:

• a fluid handling network comprising at least one fluid passageway, said fluid handling network including a patient end configured to maintain fluid communication with a bodily fluid in a patient;
• a sample analysis chamber accessible via said fluid handling network;
• a pump unit coupled to said fluid handling network, said pump unit having a sample draw mode in which said pump unit is operable to draw a sample of said bodily fluid from said patient through said patient end, toward said sample analysis chamber;
• a spectroscopic fluid analyzer configured to analyze said sample of bodily fluid while said sample of bodily fluid is in said sample analysis chamber, and determine a concentration of at least one analyte;
• and
• a separator configured to remove at least one component from said sample of bodily fluid before said sample is analyzed by said analyte detection system.

A method of extracting and analyzing a bodily fluid of a patient, said method comprising:

• establishing fluid communication between a fluid transport network and a bodily fluid of a patient, wherein said fluid transport network further comprises at least one fluid passageway and a fluid component separator;
• drawing a volume of bodily fluid from said patient into said fluid transport network;
• transporting said volume of bodily fluid to said fluid component separator via said at least one fluid passageway;
• with said fluid component separator, separating a first component from said bodily fluid;
• transporting said first component to a sample analysis chamber, wherein said sample analysis chamber is operatively engaged with an analyte detection system;
• and
• with said analyte detection system, analyzing said first component to measure the concentration of an analyte.