Blood filter unit

Details Blood filter unit Blood filter unit

1999-04-12

2001-01-09

Kim, John (Department: 1723)

Liquid purification or separation

Filter

Receptacle and modified spacing surface or support for...

C210S488000, C210S489000, C210S503000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06170671

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a blood filter unite used for the preparation of plasma or serum sample from whole blood.
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 known wherein whole blood is charged into the glass fiber in a column from one side of the column, and pressurized or sucked 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.
Moreover, dispersion of hematocrit values is great, and according to the kind of blood, a necessary amount of plasma could not been obtained by clogging filtering material or breakthrough of blood cells.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a blood filter unit capable of separating plasma or serum efficiently even from a very small amount of blood without breakthrough and hemolysis.
Another object of the invention is to provide a blood filter unit capable of separating plasma or serum stably from blood, irrespective of hematocrit value.
The inventors investigated eagerly in order to solve the aforementioned problems, and found that it is effective to use a combination of glass fiber filter and microporous membrane as blood filtering material and to provide a means for preventing adhesion of the blood filtering material on the filtrate outlet side.
They also found that it is effective to incorporate a flow area-regulating member which regulates outflow of filtrate.
Thus, the present invention provides a blood filter unit which comprises a blood filtering material comprising glass fiber filter and microporous membrane, and a holder having a blood inlet and a filtrate outlet, accommodating the blood filtering material so that the microporous membrane is located on the filtrate outlet side, being provided with a space between the blood filtering material and the filtrate outlet, and being provided with a means for preventing adhesion of the blood filtering material on the filtrate outlet side.
The present invention also provides a blood filter unit as above wherein said means for preventing adhesion is a solid material arranged so as to leave liquid passages.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3663374 (1972-05-01), Moyer et al.
patent: 4631050 (1986-12-01), Reed et al.
patent: 4902481 (1990-02-01), Clark et al.
patent: 5364533 (1994-11-01), Ogura et al.
patent: 5423989 (1995-06-01), Allen et al.
patent: 5603900 (1997-02-01), Clark et al.

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