Patent Application
20180024114
The embodiments described herein relate generally to the measurement of hemoglobin in the blood, and more particularly, to methods and corresponding systems for measuring the total hemoglobin in whole blood using its physical, optical and electrical properties.
Conventionally, measuring the total amount of hemoglobin in blood is done indirectly by lysing the red blood cells exposing released hemoglobin molecules to other molecules to which they bind to form stable compounds with characteristics that allow them to be optically or electrochemically measured. The resulting concentrations of these compounds are typically directly proportional to the amount of hemoglobin in the sample. However, chemical interference from medications, other blood components, and incomplete reagent rehydration can impact the accuracy and prolong the reaction time required for known methods.
Therefore, what is needed is a rapid system and method for the direct quantification of total hemoglobin in a system designed for use in any setting, wherein a very small amount of whole blood sample is required.
A system can be used for determining a total hemoglobin concentration in a blood sample. The system has a strip that has a capillary channel having an entrance and a vent. A disposable body is housed within the capillary channel and adapted to receive a flow of blood from the entrance such that air in the disposable body is pushed out through a vent. A measurement system is configured to measure a property of the flow of blood. A non-transitory computer readable medium stores a program in memory that causes a processor to execute a process for determining the total hemoglobin concentration in the blood sample. The process involves receiving a first measurement from the measurement system. Then, calculating the total hemoglobin concentration in the blood sample based on the property. Finally, displaying the total hemoglobin concentration in the blood sample.
The detailed description of some embodiments of the invention is made below with reference to the accompanying figures, wherein like numerals represent corresponding parts of the figures.
By way of example, and referring to
Turning to
The disposable body may have any desired size and, in some embodiments, comprises a channel having a height of from about 0.002 to about 0.050 inches, a length of from about 0.25 to about 2.0 inches, and a width of from about 0.02 to about 0.2 inches. The channel may hold a sample volume ranging from about 1 to about 10 microliters. The channel may have a predesigned size adapted for making photometric or electrical measurements with undiluted whole blood or blood derivatives. For example, the body and channel may be cylindrical or a slide and may comprise a plastic or metal plastic hybrid.
Turning to
Turning to
Strip 40 must be made such that surface energy of material is the same on both sides of the strip. This controls movement of blood 16 and ensures that movement of blood 16 is accurate for measurement. For instance, a sufficiently hydrophilic material is needed such as glass. A hydrophobic material will result in blood 16 beading and causing errors in the reading. Whether a compound is sufficiently hydrophilic can be determined by measuring the number of Hydroxyl groups (—OH), found in alcohols which are polar and therefore hydrophilic.
Turning first to light based testing, a control light needs to be selected by the user. In general, white light will be slightly distorted if there is excessive amounts of fat in blood, but the wavelength could be broken up into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. An example using blue light is shown in
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The bus 205 collectively represents all system, peripheral, and chipset buses that communicatively connect the numerous internal devices of the electronic system 200. For instance, the bus 205 communicatively connects the processing unit(s) 210 with the read-only 220, the system memory 215, and the permanent storage device 225.
From these various memory units, the processing unit(s) 210 retrieves instructions to execute and data to process in order to execute the processes of the invention. The processing unit(s) may be a single processor or a multi-core processor in different embodiments.
The read-only-memory (ROM) 220 stores static data and instructions that are needed by the processing unit(s) 210 and other modules of the electronic system. The permanent storage device 225, on the other hand, is a read-and-write memory device. This device is a non-volatile memory unit that stores instructions and data even when the electronic system 200 is off. Some embodiments of the invention use a mass-storage device (such as a magnetic or optical disk and its corresponding disk drive) as the permanent storage device 225.
Other embodiments use a removable storage device (such as a floppy disk or a flash drive) as the permanent storage device 225. Like the permanent storage device 225, the system memory 215 is a read-and-write memory device. However, unlike storage device 225, the system memory 215 is a volatile read-and-write memory, such as a random access memory. The system memory 215 stores some of the instructions and data that the processor needs at runtime. In some embodiments, the invention's processes are stored in the system memory 215, the permanent storage device 225, and/or the read-only 220. For example, the various memory units include instructions for processing appearance alterations of displayable characters in accordance with some embodiments. From these various memory units, the processing unit(s) 210 retrieves instructions to execute and data to process in order to execute the processes of some embodiments.
The bus 205 also connects to the input and output devices 230 and 235. The input devices enable the person to communicate information and select commands to the electronic system. The input devices 230 include alphanumeric keyboards and pointing devices (also called “cursor control devices”). The output devices 235 display images generated by the electronic system 200. The output devices 235 include printers and display devices, such as cathode ray tubes (CRT) or liquid crystal displays (LCD). Some embodiments include devices such as a touchscreen that functions as both input and output devices.
Finally, as shown in
These functions described above can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, in computer software, firmware or hardware. The techniques can be implemented using one or more computer program products. Programmable processors and computers can be packaged or included in mobile devices. The processes may be performed by one or more programmable processors and by one or more set of programmable logic circuitry. General and special purpose computing and storage devices can be interconnected through communication networks.
Some embodiments include electronic components, such as microprocessors, storage and memory that store computer program instructions in a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (alternatively referred to as computer-readable storage media, machine-readable media, or machine-readable storage media). Some examples of such computer-readable media include RAM, ROM, read-only compact discs (CD-ROM), recordable compact discs (CD-R), rewritable compact discs (CD-RW), read-only digital versatile discs (e.g., DVD-ROM, dual-layer DVD-ROM), a variety of recordable/rewritable DVDs (e.g., DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, etc.), flash memory (e.g., SD cards, mini-SD cards, micro-SD cards, etc.), magnetic and/or solid state hard drives, read-only and recordable Blu-Ray® discs, ultra density optical discs, any other optical or magnetic media, and floppy disks. The computer-readable media may store a computer program that is executable by at least one processing unit and includes sets of instructions for performing various operations. Examples of computer programs or computer code include machine code, such as is produced by a compiler, and files including higher-level code that are executed by a computer, an electronic component, or a microprocessor using an interpreter.
As used in this application, the term “a” or “an” means “at least one” or “one or more.”
As used in this application, the term “about” or “approximately” refers to a range of values within plus or minus 10% of the specified number.
As used in this application, the term “substantially” means that the actual value is within about 10% of the actual desired value, particularly within about 5% of the actual desired value and especially within about 1% of the actual desired value of any variable, element or limit set forth herein.
All references throughout this application, for example patent documents including issued or granted patents or equivalents, patent application publications, and non-patent literature documents or other source material, are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties, as though individually incorporated by reference, to the extent each reference is at least partially not inconsistent with the disclosure in the present application (for example, a reference that is partially inconsistent is incorporated by reference except for the partially inconsistent portion of the reference).
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
Any element in a claim that does not explicitly state “means for” performing a specified function, or “step for” performing a specified function, is not to be interpreted as a “means” or “step” clause as specified in 35 U.S.C. §112, ¶6. In particular, any use of “step of” in the claims is not intended to invoke the provision of 35 U.S.C. §112, ¶6.
Persons of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate that numerous design configurations may be possible to enjoy the functional benefits of the inventive systems. Thus, given the wide variety of configurations and arrangements of embodiments of the present invention the scope of the invention is reflected by the breadth of the claims below rather than narrowed by the embodiments described above.
This application claims priority to provisional patent application U.S. Ser. No. 62/084,486 filed on Nov. 25, 2014, the entire contents of which is herein incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62084486 | Nov 2014 | US |
