Patent ID: 8318107

Claim:
An apparatus for collecting a specimen sample from a patient and optionally detecting or analyzing an electrical or magnetic property thereof, the apparatus configured to minimize the spread of infection during and subsequent to the specimen collection procedure, the apparatus comprising: a sample container for initially receiving the specimen sample, the sample container comprising an outer surface and an inner surface, an open top end, and a closed bottom end, the closed bottom end of the sample container having a substantially convex inner surface; a hollow piston shaped to be slidably disposed within the sample container and having a hollow piston outer surface and a hollow piston inner surface comprising a bottom portion having a substantially concave inner surface that is substantially complementary with respect to the convex inner surface of the closed bottom end of the sample container, such that when the hollow piston is lowered into the sample container, the inner surface of the hollow piston matingly engages with the inner surface of the closed bottom end of the sample container, and the hollow piston operates substantially coaxially within the sample container to sweep the specimen sample to the bottom end of the sample container, the hollow piston having a hollow piston inlet port and a hollow piston outlet port; a sensing chamber positioned within the hollow piston, the sensing chamber having a sensing chamber inlet port in fluid communication with the hollow piston outlet port, so that as the hollow piston operates to sweep the specimen sample to the bottom end of the sample container, the specimen sample is directed out of the sample container, through the hollow piston inlet port, through the hollow piston, out the hollow piston outlet port and through the sensing chamber inlet port into the sensing chamber, thereby filling a volume within the sensing chamber with a portion of the specimen sample; and a plurality of sensing chamber electrodes at the sensing chamber, the plurality of sensing chamber electrodes configured to contact the portion of the sample contained in the sensing chamber.