Patent ID: 6245570
Filing Date: 2001-06-12
Classification: A61J,A61L,Y10T

Abstract:
A method of irradiating a blood product which comprises placing a flexible, flat, collapsible bag having walls into a housing which defines a chamber, said bag holding a blood product containing white blood cells, the walls of said bag being made of a plastic material that is substantially transparent to ultraviolet irradiation; said bag carrying a bar code relating to the contents of said bag; securing said bag in the chamber by passing at least one pin positioned in said chamber through at least one preformed aperture of said bag, said aperture being spaced from the blood product therein, to automatically position said bag so that the bar code carried by the bag is in a position to be read by a bar code reader carried with the chamber; automatically reading, via the bar code reader, the bar code of said bag within said chamber; via software (a) automatically confirming by said bar code if the bag is approved for irradiation, (b) automatically irradiating the bag with ultraviolet radiation if the bag is approved but (c) automatically terminating the process without ultraviolet radiation if the bag carries a bar code indicating that the bag is not approved.