Blood analysis system

A blood analysis method comprising:

• providing a blood analysis system having a monitor with a sensor port and a noninvasive optical sensor attached to the sensor port, where the optical sensor is responsive to the sensor port so as to illuminate a tissue site of a living being and detect the illumination after attenuation by pulsatile blood flow within the tissue site;
• replacing the optical sensor with a blood analysis adapter;
• collecting a blood sample from a living being with a cuvette;
• inserting the cuvette into the blood analysis adapter by positioning a cuvette in a movable drawer that is opened to receive the cuvette and closed to position the cuvette within an optical path within the blood analysis adapter;
• and
• analyzing the blood sample in response to signals communicated between the monitor via the sensor port.

The blood analysis apparatus comprising functions as a non-invasive blood parameter analyzer when a monitor is coupled with an optical sensor and as an invasive blood sampler analyzer when the monitor is coupled with a blood analysis adapter, the blood analysis adapter comprises:

• an adapter body having an adapter connector and a drawer slot;
• an optical assembly enclosed within the adapter body has a transmitting assembly and a receiving assembly mounted on a circuit board;
• the optical assembly is in electrical communications with the adapter connector so as to receive emitter signals for driving emitters within the transmitting assembly and so as to transmit detector signals responsive to at least one detector in the receiving assembly;
• a drawer slidably moves within the receiving assembly so as to extend from the drawer slot in an open position and recede into the drawer slot in a closed position;
• and
• the drawer receives a cuvette containing a blood sample.