Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting – deodorizing – preser – Control element responsive to a sensed operating condition
Patent
1997-06-26
1999-02-16
Pyon, Harold Y.
Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser
Control element responsive to a sensed operating condition
422 99, 422103, 436180, 600575, 600579, G01N 114, A61B 514
Patent
active
058716998
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is a 371 of PCT/EP96/00052 filed on Jan. 9, 1996.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for drawing liquid samples and dispensing them into a plurality of test tubes, in particular for drawing biological samples, and dispensing them in a single operation into a plurality of test tubes, filled with air or other gas at atmospheric pressure and containing, if necessary, the additives to preserve or prepare the sample for the requested analyses.
It is known that, usually, the analyses requested for each sample are different both in number and type. It is therefore necessary to use a drawing technique which involves the dispensing of the sample into several test tubes, so that in each of them is ensured the quantity of sample of the purity necessary for a particular analysis.
It is also known that the sample must undergo as little handling as possible to prevent the alteration of its components and, if necessary, it must be mixed as soon as possible to the additives necessary to conserve or prepare it for the requested analyses. This is particularly, but not exclusively, important in the case of a sample of blood drawn out of a patient.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,581 (Cinqualbre and Cinqualbre) describes three different embodiments of an apparatus consisting of a body providing a longitudinal internal duct connected at one end to a drawing needle and at the other end, through secondary crossducts, to many test tubes, embedded into suitlable cavities and left hanging up under said body. In the first and third of said embodiments said test tubes can be filled by shifting them one by one and so opening an outlet to the air contained in them, so that the blood could fill them up in succession to the desired level. In the second embodiment the test tubes are not shifted, the outlet for the air is always open and the test tube to be filled is chosen by shifting a valve member. All the three embodiments are affected by several drawbacks. Lacking any kind of suction means, this apparatus can draw only if a difference of pressure from the drawing element to the atmosphere is present and, in the case of the draws of venous blood, which are normally used, this pressure is very low; this means that the blood flows very slowly and tends to clot, so blocking the flow; to prevent this effect large ducts are required and in particular a large needle, which may be impossible for some patients. The need to manipulate the test tubes or the valve members to open an outlet to the air focuses the operator's attention away from the patient, upon whom it should on the contrary be concentrated, and keeps both of his or her hands employed, while these should be free and used only to look after the patient. It is impossible to programme the precise quantity of sample to be collected into each test tube, being this left to the skill of the operator. The whole operation is unsafe, because the test tubes are not locked to their recesses and, if their fitting is tight, they are difficult to shift and make it difficult to use the apparatus and, if said fitting is loose, the test tubes are likely to come out and spill their contents, both during the draw, because of some error of the operator or some movement of the patient, and especially during their recovery; even worse, during this last operation, the operator must handle the body of the apparatus which is certainly polluted by the sample while one or more of the filled test tubes have already been taken out, so exposing him or her to a high risk of contamination. The apparatus is completely contaminated by the sample and, being too expensive to be disposable, it must be disassembled and sterilized after each single draw.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,967 (Gruenstein Eric I. et Al) describes an apparatus designed to transfer simultaneously samples from one or more containers into a plurality of uptake containers singularly airtightly connected to a common vacuum source through a three pos
REFERENCES:
patent: 3405706 (1968-10-01), Cinqualbre
patent: 3848581 (1974-11-01), Cinqualbre et al.
patent: 4569236 (1986-02-01), Kitchen et al.
patent: 4649967 (1987-03-01), Gruenstein et al.
patent: 4676256 (1987-06-01), Golden
patent: 4784157 (1988-11-01), Halls et al.
patent: 4999307 (1991-03-01), Oakley
patent: 5084034 (1992-01-01), Zanotti
patent: 5110557 (1992-05-01), Brown et al.
Coleman Henry D.
Pyon Harold Y.
Sudol R. Neil
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