Patent Application
20160271613
This invention relates to a blood dispenser for transferring blood from a stoppered test tube to a slide or blood analyzer cartridge.
Various dispensers have been designed to transfer blood and other biological fluids from a stoppered test tube to a slide. Most dispensers have some kind of a base and a cannula extending outwardly therefrom. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,697,522 and 5,344,666, both incorporated herein by this reference, disclose bases with a plurality of stabilizing legs. U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,583, also incorporated herein by this reference, discloses a different design with a skirt about the cannula which is supported by a solid disk. See also the Helena Laboratory Corp's. “H-Pette” products.
The state of the art in blood analyzers includes a cartridge with a blood entry port. A dispenser is used to transfer one or two drops of blood from a stoppered test tube to the cartridge via the blood entry port thereof. The cartridge is loaded into a hand held blood analyzer. See, for example the Abbott “i-STAT” blood analyzer system and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,096,669; 7,419,821; 6,750,053; and 5,447,440 incorporated herein by this reference.
Conventional dispensers can be awkward to use with such systems. For example, the “C-pette” dispenser has a dispensing tip below a round disk with a flat bottom. When used in connection with the “i-STAT” cartridges, the dispensing tip doesn't go very far into the blood entry port of the cartridge and the round disk does not seat on the cartridge.
When handling blood, communication of blood borne pathogens is a concern. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,583 discloses a dispenser which is designed to prevent splashing, spraying, or spattering of blood. The patent discloses a dispenser with a skirt surrounding a spike tube with a sharp penetrating end of the spike tube shown in
In aspects of the invention, the sharp end of the spike tube resides below the dispenser skirt to prevent a needle stick accident and to prevent the transfer of blood borne pathogens to a user of the dispenser. The spike tube preferably includes a seat positioning the stopper of the test tube in a spaced relationship above the bottom disk of the dispenser.
Featured is a molded plastic dispenser. A disk has a skirt extending upwards from the disk defining a receptacle for receiving a test tube stopper therein. A spike tube extends from the disk into the receptacle and includes a distal sharpened end and preferably a seat between the disk and the distal sharpened end for engaging the stopper. The skirt may have a top rim disposed above the distal sharpened end of the spike tube. A tapered dispenser tip is positioned in fluid communication with the spike tube and depends downward from the disk.
The subject invention, however, in other embodiments, need not achieve all these objectives and the claims hereof should not be limited to structures or methods capable of achieving these objectives.
Other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of a preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings, in which:
Aside from the preferred embodiment or embodiments disclosed below, this invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or being carried out in various ways. Thus, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. If only one embodiment is described herein, the claims hereof are not to be limited to that embodiment. Moreover, the claims hereof are not to be read restrictively unless there is clear and convincing evidence manifesting a certain exclusion, restriction, or disclaimer.
In the new design of
Side circumferential skirt 64 has top rim 66 configured to be located above distal sharpened end 62 of spike tube 40. Top rim 66 may be .675″ or more above disk 58 inner surface 60. This aspect of the invention serves to protect a user from a needle stick accident or injury since skirt 64 surrounds and is longer than spike tube 40.
Tapered dispenser tip 70 depends downward (e.g., 0.248″) from disk 58 outer surface 72 and tapers to a smaller outer diameter (e.g., 0.074″) at its distal end 72 to be better received in the entry port of a blood analysis system cartridge such as an i-Stat cartridge. Fluid passage 74 extends from the distal end 72 of the dispensing tip 70 to the distal sharp end 62 of spike tube 40.
Skirt 64,
The dispenser 42 may be molded out of a suitable medical grade polymer.
In use, the user pushes on the disk outer surface 72,
The interior of the skirt 64 is so dimensioned to seat against the outer periphery of stopper 50. The stopper is spaced above disk 58 and after use and removal from stopper 50 distal pointed end 62 of spike tube 40 is shield by skirt 64 and lies below rim 66 thereof to lower the chances of a user's finger inadvertently being stuck by the spike tube to prevent needle stick injuries.
Although specific features of the invention are shown in some drawings and not in others, this is for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the invention. The words “including”, “comprising”, “having”, and “with” as used herein are to be interpreted broadly and comprehensively and are not limited to any physical interconnection. Moreover, any embodiments disclosed in the subject application are not to be taken as the only possible embodiments.
In addition, any amendment presented during the prosecution of the patent application for this patent is not a disclaimer of any claim element presented in the application as filed: those skilled in the art cannot reasonably be expected to draft a claim that would literally encompass all possible equivalents, many equivalents will be unforeseeable at the time of the amendment and are beyond a fair interpretation of what is to be surrendered (if anything), the rationale underlying the amendment may bear no more than a tangential relation to many equivalents, and/or there are many other reasons the applicant can not be expected to describe certain insubstantial substitutes for any claim element amended.
Other embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art and are within the following claims.
