Liquid purification or separation – Filter – Supported – shaped or superimposed formed mediums
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-15
2002-06-18
Kim, John (Department: 1723)
Liquid purification or separation
Filter
Supported, shaped or superimposed formed mediums
C210S488000, C210S504000, C210S506000, C436S528000, C436S531000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06405876
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a blood filter cartridge for the preparation of a plasma or serum sample from whole blood.
The type or concentration of blood components, such as metabolites, proteins, lipids, electrolytes, enzymes, antigens, and antibodies, is measured, in general, using a plasma or serum sample obtained by centrifuging whole blood. However, centrifuging takes labor and time. Particularly, centrifuging is unsuitable for an urgent case of measuring a small number of samples promptly and in site inspection, because of requiring a centrifuge and electricity. Thereupon, it has been investigated to separate serum from whole blood by filtration.
Several filtration methods using glass fiber filter have been developed wherein whole blood is charged into the glass fiber put in a column from one side of the column, and pressurized or evacuated to obtain plasma or serum from the other side (Japanese Patent KOKOKU Nos. 44-14673, 5-52463, Japanese Patent KOKAI Nos. 2-208565, 4-208856).
However, practical filtration methods capable of obtaining an amount of plasma or serum from whole blood necessary for measuring by an automatic analyzer have not been developed except a part of items, such as blood sugar.
On the other hand, the inventors developed a blood filter cartridge composed of a filter holder and a syringe. The filter holder is composed of a holder body which contains filter material and a cap which is screwed on the holder body. The filter material consists of, e.g. two sheets of glass fiber filter, one sheet of cellulose filter and one sheet of polysulfone microporous membrane (FIG. 1 of EP 785430 A1)
Another blood filter cartridge composed of a holder body and a cap was also developed. The holder body consists of a plasma receiver located on the upper side and a filter chamber located on the underside. The filter material put in the filter chamber is composed of six sheets of glass fiber filter and one sheet of polysulfone microporous membrane (Example 1 of EP 785012A1).
The inventors further developed various blood filter cartridges, and their patent applications were made (Japanese Patent KOKAI 10-227788, 10-185909, 10-185780, etc.)
Incidentally, there are various blood components, and contents of some of them are very small. Heretofore, the analysis of the minor components were made possible by the improvement in the analytical sensitivity. However, the analysis requires a large scale analyzer and expensive cost, and nevertheless, the analytical accuracy tends to be not enough.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a means capable of measuring minor components contained in blood simply, efficiently, and with a high analytical accuracy.
After investigating eagerly so as to develop the above means, the inventors noted the blood filter device which is used for the preparation of plasma or serum samples for the analysis of blood components. That is, the volume of blood being filtered is considerably more than the volume of plasma or serum samples subjected to use. For example, a blood component can be analyzed using only a volume of 10 &mgr;l or less by a dry analytical element, i.e. several analytical items can be analyzed using several tens &mgr;l. Nevertheless, the volume of blood being filtered is from several hundreds to thousand &mgr;l. Thereupon, when an antibody to an antigen to be measured or an antigen to an antibody to be measured is immobilized on a blood filter device, the minor component which is the antigen or the antibody can be concentrated. By subjecting the immobilized matter to analysis, the minor component can be analyzed with a high accuracy.
The present invention has been achieved based on the above conception, and provides a blood filter cartridge which comprises a blood filtering material and a holder containing the blood filtering material and having a blood inlet and a filtrate outlet, wherein an antibody or an antigen is immobilized on at least a part from the blood inlet to the filtrate outlet or a filtrate receiver.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4512896 (1985-04-01), Gershoni
patent: 4623461 (1986-11-01), Hossom et al.
patent: 4693834 (1987-09-01), Hossom
patent: 4975366 (1990-12-01), Sudo et al.
patent: 4999163 (1991-03-01), Lennon et al.
patent: 5038793 (1991-08-01), Guirguis
patent: 5916521 (1999-06-01), Bunce et al.
patent: 6045699 (2000-04-01), Yazawa et al.
patent: 6140474 (2000-10-01), Kamada et al.
patent: 0785012 (1997-07-01), None
Arai Takaki
Seshimoto Osamu
Yazawa Kenichiro
Kim John
Reed Smith LLP
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