Patent Application
20170050184
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for collecting, storing and transferring a liquid specimen.
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Fluid biological specimens are routinely collected and analyzed for a variety of medical and other purposes. It is commonplace for a patient visiting a medical facility for evaluation and/or treatment to be asked to deposit a urine specimen in a cup and provide that specimen to a medical professional for testing. It is also increasingly common for athletes involved in competitive sports to be required to provide a urine specimen which may be divided into two or more sample vials in order to test those athletes for illegal performance enhancing drugs or practices such as doping. More than one sample of the specimen is typically taken from the cup and preserved in the event that the results of one sample analysis are inconclusive or to provide additional evidence of a particular result. Of course it is not only athletes who may undergo testing via urine analysis wherein the specimens must be protected from contamination starting from collection in a cup throughout transfer and analysis of specimen samples. Thus, it is often necessary to prevent spillage or contamination of liquid specimens throughout any transport of the specimen or transfer thereof to another container(s).
Most currently used specimen cups do not provide apparatus for transferring of a liquid specimen to a vial or other container for laboratory testing of the specimen.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present disclosure to provide an apparatus for collecting, storing and transferring a liquid specimen that improves over prior art devices.
This section provides a general summary of the disclosure and does not provide a comprehensive description or include full scope or all the features of the subject matter disclosed.
According to one aspect, the present teachings provide a specimen collection, transportation, storage and transfer apparatus including a specimen cup for collecting a specimen, and a lid attachable to the specimen cup for closing an opening in the specimen cup. The lid defining a collar protruding therefrom, the lid and the collar collectively defining an aperture extending through the lid and a length of the collar. The apparatus further includes a transfer assembly including a tube having first and second ends, the first end defining a point, the second end configured for insertion through the aperture in the collar for transferring a liquid specimen from the specimen cup through the tube. A transfer cup having a bottom and defining an open top is attached to the first end of the tube, the tube extending through the bottom of, and into the transfer cup. The first end of the tube configured for insertion into an evacuated vial for transferring a liquid specimen from the specimen cup to the vial. The collar being configured to support the tube in an upright position relative to the specimen cup when the tube is inserted through the collar and into the specimen cup.
Optionally, a seal may cover the aperture in the lid when the tube is not coupled to the lid.
In one embodiment, the lid includes a generally concave enter portion extending substantially across a diameter of the lid, the aperture disposed through the lid may be positioned away from the center of the lid such that potential spillage of the specimen may be contained on the center of the lid surface and does not contaminate the aperture.
In another aspect of the disclosed invention, the tube incudes a needle attached to an end thereof end for piercing a seal of a vial to which a specimen is to be transferred.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. The description and specific examples in this summary are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.
The present teachings will become more fully understood from the detailed description, the appended claims and the following drawings. The drawings are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Detailed illustrative descriptions of example embodiments are disclosed herein. However, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are merely representative for purposes of describing example embodiments. The example embodiments may be embodied in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to only the example embodiments set forth herein.
It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected,” “coupled,” “mated,” “attached,” or “fixed” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly connected” or “directly coupled” to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion (e.g., “between” versus “directly between”, “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent”, etc.).
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the language explicitly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising,”, “includes” and/or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions/acts noted may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two figures shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.
As shown in
Referring to
In one embodiment, the aperture 22 has a diameter D of approximately 3.175 (3.175 mm) and the seal 24 is formed of a plastic material in the shape of a circle generally and having a diameter of about 25.4 millimeters (25.4 mm). Thus in one embodiment the area of the seal 24 with a reusable adhesive on one side thereof, is about sixty-five (65) times the area of the aperture 22 to be closed via the seal 24. In other embodiments, a ratio of the area of the seal 24 relative to the area of the aperture 22 may be less and in a range between about 24 to about 65 or more. In other embodiments a single use seal may be used wherein an area of the seal may be only slightly larger than the area of the aperture 22 for closing the aperture in a leak proof manner.
In the illustrated embodiment, the seal 24 defines a protrusion 24A extending outwardly from a circumference of the seal for grasping the seal and facilitating removal and/or installation or otherwise handling of the seal. In the illustrated embodiment the protrusion 24A is made of the same material as the seal and formed integral therewith. In one embodiment, the protrusion 24A extends outwardly from the circumference of the seal 24 approximately 3 mm and defines a generally rectangular or trapezoidal shaped tab having a width of about 2-3 mm. In one embodiment the protrusion 24A includes an adhesive on one side thereof the same as the remainder of the seal 24. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the protrusion 24A does not have an adhesive disposed on either side thereof so the protrusion 24A does not adhere to the lid 16 which may better facilitate grasping and removing the seal 24 from lid 16.
Referring to
In one embodiment, the tube 26 defines a length sufficient so that the second end 31 of the tube may be positioned within the aperture 22 such that the second end 31 of the tube extends all the way to the interior bottom of the specimen cup 12 for allowing transfer of substantially the entire contents from the specimen cup 12 via the tube 26. In the
Referring to
Referring again to
The cup 28 defines an open top 40 for receiving a vial therein. Thus, an inside diameter of cup 28 is configured for receiving a vial therein for inserting the vial in cup 28 and transferring the specimen to the vial as will be disclosed further hereinafter. Depending on the size of the specimen cup 12 and the size of a vial (not shown) intended to be used with the apparatus 10, the diameter of the cup 28 may be sized accordingly. Thus, the diameter of the cup 28 should be at least slightly larger than the diameter of the vial. As mentioned above, a height of the cup 28 should be at least longer than a length of the needle 36 extending into the cup.
In use of apparatus 10, the specimen cup 12 may be provided to a patient for depositing a liquid specimen such as urine in the specimen cup 12 via opening 14. The lid 16 may be placed on the specimen cup 12 via the threads 15, 17 for attaching the lid to the specimen cup and sealing the opening 14 thereof. The seal 24 may be attached to the center portion 18 of the lid 16 and used to seal the aperture 22 in the lid for transporting and/or storage of the specimen within the specimen cup 12.
Thereafter, to transfer the specimen from the specimen cup 12 to an evacuated vial (not shown), the seal 24 must be removed from covering the aperture 22 in the lid. The transfer assembly 50 is then coupled to the lid 16 by inserting the second end 31 of tube 26 through the aperture 22 and into the specimen cup via the opening 14 therein. The second end 31 of the tube 26 being pushed through the lid 16 so the end thereof extends at least into and is covered by a liquid specimen (not shown) contained within the specimen cup 12. The transfer assembly 50 being positioned as shown in
To carry out the transfer, a vial as described above (not shown) is placed top down into the opening 40 of cup 28 of the transfer assembly 50. A technician pushes the evacuated vial downwards against the needle 36 until the tip 38 of the needle 36 penetrates the seal of the evacuated vial forming a continuous channel between the evacuated vial and the second end 31 of the tube 26 submerged in the specimen. Once a sealed channel is formed, a sample of the specimen from the specimen cup 12 is transferred to the sample vial by suction. After a volume of the sample is transferred to the sample vial, the vial may be removed from the apparatus 10 by the technician by pulling the vial away from the needle 36 and out of the cup 28. This procedure may be repeated as needed to obtain additional samples.
Once transfer of one or more samples is complete, the tube 26 attached to the cup 28 may be removed from the collar 20 of the lid 16 by application of minimal force by the technician. In one embodiment, any spillage of the specimen which may occur as the result of removal of the tube 26 from the specimen cup 12 is contained within the concave center portion 18 of the lid 16 and is thereby controlled preventing contamination of the laboratory space and the technician. Any spillage thus contained may be cleaned by procedures well known in the art.
In the embodiment shown in
Example embodiments thus being described, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that example embodiments may be varied through routine experimentation and without further inventive activity. Variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the exemplary embodiments, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
