Automated microbiological testing apparatus and method therefor

US6372485B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Becton, Dickinson and Company · US

Inventors

• Alexander Wayne Clark · Spring, US
• Paul Gerard Gladnick · Seattle, US
• Robert Edward Armstrong · Cockeysville, US
• Nicholas Bachur · Monkton, US
• Klaus W. Berndt · Shrewsbury, US
• Dwight Livingston · Fallston, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 17, 2000
• Grant date: Apr 16, 2002
• Expiry date: May 17, 2020

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S435/808
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A diagnostic microbiological testing system and method for microorganism identification (ID) and antimicrobial susceptibility determinations (AST). The system includes multiple-well test panels capable of performing ID and AST testing on the same test panel. Each test panel is inoculated with reagents, broth-suspended organisms, and placed into the instrument system. The instrument system includes a rotating carousel for incubation and indexing, multiple light sources each emitting different wavelength light, precision calorimetric and fluorometric detection, barcode test panel tracking and a control processor for making determinations based on measured test data. One light source includes a plurality of LEDs arranged in a linear array. Each of the LEDs' junction currents are controllable to produce a predetermined illumination profile.