Method for detection of low level bacterial concentration by luminescence

An improvement on a method of detecting the presence of microbial luminescent reactive molecules in a sample wherein the concentration of said molecules is so low as to have the luminescent reaction due to said molecules masked by extraneous luminescent reactions of the reagents themselves, the method comprising the steps of:

• (A) placing said sample, wherein the concentration of said molecules is so low as to have the luminescent reaction due to said molecules masked by extraneous luminescent reactions of the reagents themselves, in a designated reactive location,
• (B) situating an optical detector means adjacent the reactive location for detecting photon emission from the sample,
• (C) adding a reagent to the sample in an amount exceeding the minimum necessary to cause luminescence of all the luminescent reactive molecules in the sample, and
• (D) observing the strength of luminescence during the reaction between the sample and reagent with the aid of the optical detector means, the improvement comprising the step of:
• positioning an optical filter means between the optical detector means and the sample for selectively restricting the wavelength of photons which are permitted to pass from the sample to the detector means to those photons emanating from said extraneous luminescent reaction of the reagents themselves.