Apparatus and method for analyzing a body fluid

US5246858A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Boehringer Mannheim GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Steven R. Arbuckle · Indianapolis, US
• William R. Boyd · Indianapolis, US
• Michael E. Grant · Rathdrum, US
• Mark Allen Gregory · Carmel, US
• Russell T. Gray · Brownsburg, US
• Friedrich Jost · Weilheim in Oberbayern, DE
• Daniel L. Kennedy · Indianapolis, US
• Dino Perin · New Palestine, US
• Richard Riedel · Carmel, US
• David E. Storvick · Indianapolis, US
• John W. Stoughton · Indianapolis, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 27, 1991
• Grant date: Sep 21, 1993
• Expiry date: Feb 27, 2011

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T436/10
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A method and apparatus (10) for determining the remission of a chemistry (106) which reacts with a medically significant component of a body fluid. The remission of the chemistry (106) changes as it reacts. The method and apparatus (10) include irradiating the chemistry (106) with a radiation source (182), detecting remissions of radiation from the chemistry (106) with a radiation detector (300), providing a radiation pathway (164) between the source (182) and the chemistry (106), providing a remission pathway (164) between the chemistry (106) and the detector (300), and detecting the rate of change of remission of the chemistry (106) with respect to time. The irradiating, detecting and rate detecting steps and apparatus comprise initially irradiating the chemistry (106) at a first time rate and detecting remissions therefrom, comparing remission data from remission readings spaced apart by a first number of intervening remission readings, and determining when the difference between compared readings exceeds a first predetermined limit. The time rate of irradiation of the chemistry is changed once the difference between compared readings exceeds the first limit. Remission data from…