Patent ID: 6710879
Filing Date: 2004-03-23
Classification: B01L,G01N

Abstract:
A method for the assessment of at least one parameter of a species of biological particles in a liquid analyte material, comprising applying a volume of a liquid sample representing the analyte material and comprising a plurality of particles, or a plurality of particles isolated from a volume of liquid sample representing the analyte material, to sample compartment from which sample compartment electromagnetic signals from the sample in the compartment can pass to the exterior, the size of the volume allowing identification of at least 10 of the biological particles,performing one exposure of electromagnetic signals from the sample onto an array of active detection elements forming an image of the plurality of particles, the ratio of a linear dimension of the image on the array of detection elements to the original linear dimension in the sample compartment being from 40:1 to 1:10 when the size of the particles is between &frac13; Tm and 3 Tm, and from 3:1 to 1:100, when the size of the particles is between 3 T, and 100 Tm, detecting the image as intensities by individual active detection elements, processing the intensities in order to identify the image of electromagnetic signals from the species of biological particles as distinct from representations of electromagnetic signals from background signals correlating the results of the processing to the at least one parameter of the liquid analyte material, and assessing the at least one parameter with a repeatability error of at most 33%.