Liquid purification or separation – With alarm – indicator – register – recorder – signal or...
Patent
1997-06-24
1999-07-06
Drodge, Joseph W.
Liquid purification or separation
With alarm, indicator, register, recorder, signal or...
7386323, 210136, 21050023, 422 58, 422100, 422101, 604403, B01D 1712, B01D 6304, G01N 2115, G01N 110
Patent
active
059193565
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a device for sampling fluids, and in particular concerns a device which can obtain a sample of a fluid (such as blood), filter the sample, and perform an assay on the filtrate to detect the presence of a particular component therein, such as a pathogen.
Conventional blood-sampling devices are not known to comprise filter means for separating the blood components before testing. Thus, to be tested for the presence of viral proteins, the blood must first be extracted from the patient, separated into serum and cells, for example by centrifugation, and the serum assayed in a separate vessel. This can be time consuming and can therefore add to the costs involved in a diagnostic testing procedure.
In addition, current blood sampling devices generally comprise puncturing means which pierce the skin of a patient and extract a relatively high volume of blood from the patient, for example a needle and syringe arrangement whereby the needle pierces the skin and enters a blood vessel and blood is extracted from the paitent into the syringe body. This can be traumatic for the patient and an unnecessarily high volume of blood can be taken, most of which is not required for sampling.
The present invention provides a device for sampling a fluid, the device having filtration means for separating components of the fluid, a conduit directing flow of the fluid to be sampled from a source through the device, and sensing means which can detect the presence of a component in the fluid.
The relatively small size of the device ensures it's portability and the device will normally be shaped and dimensioned so to be convenient to hand-hold. The device will normally be a single-use disposable item.
In certain embodiments the device has puncture means such as a hypodermic needle to pierce the skin of a patient and allow the sampling of blood, synovial fluid or other body fluids therefrom. Biopsy needles or small bore needles may be used as a puncture means in the device. Fluid may also be extracted directly from tissue by exerting pressure on the tissue; this extraction may occur in situ or using a sample excised from the patient's body.
Alternatively, the fluid may be sampled non-invasively and thus a puncture means may be unnecessary. For example the fluid may be tears, urine or saliva, all of which can be sampled non-invasively. Thus the device may have a nozzle or other means to enable access into areas of restricted access.
Where present, the puncture means is desirably hollow and may be linked to the conduit.
The conduit can simply comprise the filtration means in the form of a hollow membrane fibre through which the body fluid can flow, or a bundle of such fibres. The device may also have a chamber for collecting the filtrate. The chamber may also contain the sensing means.
The fluid may comprise a liquid or a gas. In one embodiment the fluid may be a physiological sample such as blood, synovial fluid, tissue fluid, urine, tears, saliva etc. The fluid may also consist of a tissue sample, dissolved or suspended in a liquid medium.
However, the device may also be applied in non-medical or non-veterinary applications. For example the device may be used to sample fluids such as river watyer, sewage, industrial fluids or effluent, foodstuffs (for example milk, cheese, yogurt, beer, meat or fish).
Filtration of the sample preferably access through cross-flow filtration.
The filtration means may be woven or non-woven and can optionally comprise a membrane filter having pore sizes selected to separate, for example, blood cells from other blood components. The filtration means can be selected to filter out a particular molecule size range so that only a particular size range of molecule is present in the filtrate.
In one embodiment of the invention, the filtration means comprises a membrane filter in the form of a hollow membrane fibre or a bundle of such fibres through which the body fluid flows, so that filtration of the fluid occurs by cross-filtration, i.e., by flow of fluid along the surface of the filtrat
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Drodge Joseph W.
FSM Technologies Ltd.
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