Patent Application
20100041131
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a blood specimen dispenser and more particularly to a blood specimen dispenser which is designed to dispense a precise amount of blood onto a spot of a filter paper or the like for the screening thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,110,567 and 5,238,655, Applicant disclosed blood collection devices which collect blood from a puncture site of a patient to enable blood of patient, such as a newborn or older child, to be screened. Applicant previously described a Quick-Spot® Dispenser for newborn and pediatric screening in a promotional publication but the dispenser thereof was not placed into commercial production.
In Applicant's prior Quick-Spot® Dispenser, the blood in the blood collection device was collected in devices in such as that of the '567 and '655 patents and was then discharged therefrom onto a spot on a filter paper or the like for later screening and/or analysis. Since the filter paper of the prior art had circular spots or areas onto which the collected blood was to be placed, it was important that a precise amount of blood be placed within the circular spot on the filtered paper. In Applicant's earlier illustrated blood specimen dispenser, the blood was discharged from the blood collection vial by means of a conventional syringe but the proper amount of blood discharged therefrom was difficult to control since the plunger of the syringe had to be precisely depressed to discharge the proper amount of blood onto the spot of the filtered paper.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key aspects or essential aspects of the claimed subject matter. Moreover, this Summary is not intended for use as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
A blood specimen dispenser is disclosed comprising a blood specimen collector including a generally L-shaped body having a generally horizontally disposed body portion and a generally vertically disposed body portion extending generally upwardly from the horizontally disposed body portion. The vertically disposed body portion has a lower end and an upper end, and a hollow blood vial, having a closed door and an open upper end, is secured at its lower end to the upper end of the vertically disposed body portion. The vertically disposed body portion has a pick-up tube portion at its lower end with the pick-up tube having a first bore formed in the lower end which extends therethrough.
An elongated hollow drop tube extends upwardly from the upper end of the vertically disposed body portion into the blood vial. The drop tube has a lower end and an upper end with the upper end positioned below the upper end of the blood vial. The lower end of the drop tube is in fluid communication with the first bore in the pick-up tube portion. The L-shaped body has a second bore formed therein which extends through the horizontally extending portion and a third bore which extends through the vertically extending portion to the upper end of the vertically extending body portion. The second bore has an inlet opening and the third bore has an air discharge opening which is in communication with the interior of the blood vial. A first hydrophobic filter is positioned in the air discharge opening of the third bore.
A generally T-shaped check valve assembly is operatively connected to the blood specimen collector and comprises a first elongated hollow body portion having an air inlet end and an air discharge end. A second hollow body portion extends transversely from the first body portion intermediate the air inlet end and the air discharge end and is in communication with the interior of the first body portion. A first one-way check valve is provided in the first body portion between the air inlet end and the juncture of the second body portion and the first body portion. The first check-valve permits air to flow from the air inlet end of the check-valve assembly towards the air discharge end thereof and prevents air from passing therethrough towards the air inlet end of the check-valve assembly.
A second one-way check-valve is provided in the first body portion between the air discharge end of the first body portion and the juncture of the second body portion and the first body portion. The second check-valve permits air to flow therethrough towards the air discharge end of the first body portion while preventing air from passing therethrough from the air discharge end of the first body portion towards the air inlet end of the first body portion.
A volumetric pipetter is connected to the second body portion whereby the volumetric pipetter may be operated to force a predetermined amount of air into the first body portion between the first and second check valves and out of the air discharge end of the first body portion.
A second hydrophobic filter is positioned downstream of the air discharge end of the first body portion which permits air to flow therethrough while preventing blood to flow therethrough towards the second check valve. The air inlet of the second bore of the blood specimen dispenser is in communication with the downstream side of the second hydrophobic filter. The operation of the volumetric pipetter causes a predetermined volume of air to be discharged therefrom and passed through the second check valve, through the second hydrophobic filter, through the second bore in the L-shaped body, passed through the first hydrophobic filter and into the lower end of the blood vial thereby causing a predetermined volume of blood in the blood vial to be discharged therefrom into the upper end of the draw tube for discharge from the pick-up tube.
It is therefore a principal object to provide an improved blood specimen dispenser.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved blood specimen dispenser which dispenses a precise amount of blood onto a spot on a filter paper for screening thereof.
A further object of the invention is to provide a blood specimen dispenser which prevents contamination of the blood specimen.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a blood specimen dispenser which dispenses precisely measured volumes of blood directly from the blood specimen dispenser onto a filter paper for analysis.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a blood specimen dispenser including a hydrophobic membrane disk filter which prevents foreign particles from entering the specimen container and to prevent blood from back-flowing into the valve assembly should the membrane in the dispenser fail.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a blood specimen dispenser which is used in combination with a blood specimen collector.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the following figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various views unless otherwise specified.
Embodiments are described more fully below with reference to the accompanying figures, which form a part hereof and show, by way of illustration, specific exemplary embodiments. These embodiments are disclosed in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. However, embodiments may be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense in that the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.
The blood specimen dispenser of this invention is referred to generally by the reference numeral 10 and generally includes a blood specimen collector 12 such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,110,567 and 5,238,655, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein and are relied upon to complete the disclosure hereof. The blood specimen dispenser 10 also includes a check-valve assembly 14 and a conventional volumetric pipetter 16.
Pipetter 16 includes a barrel 18 having a manually movable plunger 20 mounted therein. When plunger 20 is depressed, a precise measured amount of air is discharged from the lower end 22 thereof. Check-valve assembly 14 includes a first body portion 26 having an air inlet end 28 and an air discharge end 30 and also includes a second body portion 32 extending transversely from the first body portion 26 and which is in communication with the interior of the first body portion 26.
A first one-way check-valve 34 is positioned in the first body portion 26 inwardly of the air inlet end 28 and is designed to permit air flow therethrough from the inlet end 28 towards the other end of the check-valve assembly 14 while preventing flow from the other end of check-valve assembly 14 outwardly through the air inlet end 28. The numeral 36 refers to a one-way check-valve enclosed in the T-shaped body 24 inwardly of the air discharge end 30 which is adapted to permit air to pass outwardly therethrough discharge end 30 but will prevent air from passing inwardly from the air discharge end 30 towards the other end of the check-valve assembly 14.
The numeral 38 refers to a hydrophobic disk filter which is positioned at the discharge end 30 of the body portion 26 which will permit air to flow therethrough but which will prevent blood or other foreign particles to pass therethrough towards the check-valve 36.
The specimen collector 12 includes a generally L-shaped body 40 including a generally horizontally disposed body portion 42 and a generally vertically disposed body portion 44. As seen in
The numeral 52 refers to a blood vial having a closed upper end and a lower end which is secured to the upper end of body portion 44 as illustrated in
Referring to
Referring to
In use, after blood has been collected from a puncture site by the blood specimen collector 12, the collector 12 is secured to the outlet side of the hydrophobic filter. The pick-up tube 60 is then positioned over one of the spots 64 on the filter paper 62 and the volumetric pipetter 16 is fully depressed which causes a precise amount of air to be discharged therefrom and discharged into the check-valve assembly 14. The one-way check-valve 34 prevents air from being discharged from the pipetter 16 to pass outwardly of the check-valve assembly 14 but permits air to pass to the left through the check-valve assembly 36, through the hydrophobic filter 38, into bore 48, through hydrophobic filter 50 and into the interior of the vial 52. The air being introduced into the vial 52 will cause the blood therein to move downwardly so that a precise amount of blood will flow downwardly into the bore 58 and out of the pick-up tube 60. After the precise amount of blood has been placed on the spot 60, the plunger 20 of the pipetter 16 will be withdrawn so that air will be drawn upwardly thereinto the barrel 18 thereof through the inlet end 28 of the body portion 24, through the check-valve 34 and upwardly into the barrel 18. When the pick-up tube 60 has been placed over a second spot 64, the process will be repeated by depressing the plunger 20.
Thus it can be seen that a novel blood specimen dispenser has been provided which enables a precise and predetermined amount of blood to be dispensed therefrom so that a proper amount of blood will be placed on one of the spots 64 of the filter paper 62. The hydrophobic filters insure that blood or other contaminants may not enter the interior of the check-valve assembly 14 or the interior of the volumetric pipetter.
A very important feature of this invention is its ability to dispense consecutive drops without disconnecting the volumetric pipetter 16 from the specimen collector to allow air to refill the pipetter 16 for another dispensing. Thus it can be seen that the invention accomplishes at least all of its stated objectives.
Although the invention has been described in language that is specific to certain structures and methodological steps, it is to be understood that the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific structures and/or steps described. Rather, the specific aspects and steps are described as forms of implementing the claimed invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be practiced without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims hereinafter appended.
