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AssigneeMcDonnell Douglas Corporation
InventorsClifton Aldridge, Jr., Paul W. Jones, Sandra F. Gibson, Richard D. Vannest, James T. Holen, George F. Keyser, Michael C. Meyer
Estimating the term…
Microorganisms in a specimen are detected, identified, and enumerated by introducing the specimen into a sampling cartridge and diluting the specimen with a known volume of water within the cartridge. The cartridge has a manifold and several cassettes attached to the manifold. Each cassette contains a serpentine flow channel having a series of filters therein and a detection cell located downstream from each filter. The flow channel in each cassette also contains a culture medium which is freeze dried and is highly selective in the sense that it promotes the growth of one type of microorganism, but not others. The mixture of the specimen and water flows from the manifold into the flow channel of each cassette where it rehydrates the culture medium therein and further flows through the filters. Each filter removes a known proportion of the microorganisms from the mixture of specimen, water and medium, thereby effecting a serial dilution. After the cassettes are heated to incubate the microoganisms, the detection cells are observed for growth of the microorganisms therein which is manifested in a change in the light transmitting characteristics of the mixtures within the cells.
A process for detecting and identifying a specific microorganism in a polymicrobic specimen taken directly from human excretion or secretion without producing cultures, said process comprising diluting the specimen of human excretion or secretion in water;
In combination with a device containing a light-transmitting well, and means for evacuating air from the well of the device to create a vacuum in the well and for thereafter replacing the evacuated air with polymicrobic water specimen, a culture medium located in the well and being capable of sustaining a preselected microorganism to indicate the presence of that microorganism in a polymicrobic water specimen which is introduced into the well by evacuating air from the well with said means and thereafter replacing the evacuated air with the polymicrobic specimen also with said means, the culture medium comprising:
In combination with a cassette including a rigid body having at least one well therein and further having an inlet that opens out of the body and a flow channel leading from the inlet to the well, and means on the body for closing the ends of the well sufficiently to maintain a liquid in the well, said means being transparent to enable light to be projected through the well, whereby a polymicrobic water specimen that is introduced into the cassette at the inlet will flow through the flow channel to the well;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.