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US 6,555,387 B1Granted
Method for producing thin liquid samples for microscopic analysis
AssigneeBecton, Dickinson and Company
InventorsKlaus W. Berndt, Brian G. Scrivens, Dwight Livingston, Robert S. Frank
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Abstract
The present invention relates to the field of diagnostics by means of microscopic sample analysis, and specifically relates to a method and apparatus for preparing thin microscopic samples of liquids, and in particular monolayers of red blood cells.
Claims31
A method for producing thin samples of liquids for microscopic analysis, said method comprising:
- a) providing an apparatus comprising
- (i) a base portion;
- (ii) a means for containing said thin liquid samples carried by said base portion, having an interior and exterior, and outside walls, and
- (iii) a lid portion;
- wherein the base portion, said means and the lid portion form a cuvette, wherein the cuvette has a sample entrance, wherein said cuvette has a plurality of separating walls which separate the interior of said cuvette into a plurality of successive compartments, and wherein each of said separating walls comprises a first type of through-channel sized so as to allow sample particles and sample liquid to flow through said first through-channel, and a second type of through-channel sized so narrow in one direction as to allow only sample liquid to flow through said second through-channel, wherein the first type of through-channel is sized in a way that a significant percentage of sample particles arriving at a separation wall can pass through;
- b) depositing a liquid sample into the sample entrance;
- c) allowing the liquid sample to flow from the sample entrance into the cuvette;
- d) further allowing the liquid sample to flow into each compartment created by the plurality of separating walls and flow through each separating wall until the sample flows through a last separating wall to a last compartment;
- and
- e) obtaining the thin liquid sample in the last compartment.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.