Fluidic device for medical diagnostics
AssigneeLifeScan, Inc.
InventorsJohn Lemke, Robert Justice Shartle, Victor Pan, Philip Cizdziel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fluidic medical diagnostic device permits measurement of analyte concentration or a property of a biological fluid, particularly the coagulation time of blood. The device has at one end a sample port for introducing a sample and at the other end a bladder for drawing the sample to a measurement area. A channel carries the sample from the sample port to the measurement area, and a stop junction, between the measurement area and bladder, halts the sample flow. The desired measurement can be made by placing the device into a meter which measures a physical property of the sample—typically, optical transmittance—after it has interacted with a reagent in the measurement area.
Claims6
An optical meter that can determine when sample has been applied to the surface of a test strip inserted into it, said meter comprising:
- (a) means for collecting reflectance data from a region of said meter occupied by a sample application location of said test strip when present in said meter, wherein said means comprises:
- (i) a light source for irradiating said region of said meter;
- and
- (ii) a detector for detecting reflected light from said region of said meter;
- (b) means for comparing said reflectance data to a reference value to obtain a sample present signal;
- and
- (c) means for depressing a bladder of said test strip in response to said sample present signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.