Patent ID: 6812032
Filing Date: 2004-11-02
Classification: G01N,Y10T

Abstract:
A method for making a plurality of different reagent mixtures comprising blood and analyzing particle distributions of the reagent mixtures, wherein each reagent mixture corresponds to a respective operator input indicative of a respective species of blood, and the method is performed with an apparatus having at least one pump, at least one reagent chamber containing at least one lysing agent, a sensing unit defining a counting orifice for receiving a reagent mixture and analyzing a particle distribution of the reagent mixture, and a control unit responsive to each operator input to control the at least one pump to make a respective reagent mixture having a volumetric ratio of the at least one lysing agent to blood corresponding to the respective operator input and species of blood, and to further control the sensing unit to analyze a particle distribution of the reagent mixture, the method comprising the following steps:adjusting the volumetric ratio of the at least one lysing agent to blood, in response to an operator input indicative of a respective species of blood, to correspond to the respective operator input, and thereby form a predetermined reagent mixture corresponding to the respective operator input and species of blood, said adjusting including: selecting at least one lysing agent corresponding to the respective operator input; pumping with the at least one pump a predetermined volume of the at least one lysing agent corresponding to the respective operator input; pumping with the at least one pump a predetermined volume of blood corresponding to the respective operator input; intermixing the predetermined volumes of the at least one lysing agent and blood, and in turn creating the predetermined reagent mixture corresponding to the respective operator input; and introducing the predetermined reagent mixture through the counting orifice of the sensing unit and sensing a particle distribution of said reagent mixture.