Patent ID: 7695953

Claim:
A process for determining the presence or absence of a drug of abuse or other analyte in a body fluid sample taken from the subject to be tested comprising the steps of: (a) collecting a body fluid sample from the subject using a latchable extractor wand that contains a sponge for collecting the fluid specimen from the subject, a means for compressing the sponge so that the body fluid may be expressed, said means comprising a movable handle that can move downward along a stem so as to compress the sponge against a fixed surface at the end of said stem, and a means for latching the handle into a locked compression position over said stem when the sponge is compressed by the handle; (b) expressing the body fluid sample from the sponge to a vial containing a buffer solution by moving the handle into the locked compression position so as to compress the sponge and then imparting energy into the buffer solution so as to promote the breakdown of the sample and to reduce viscosity of the sample; (c) dispensing the solution of expressed body fluid and buffer from the vial to a reaction well containing a reagent capable of identifying a drugs of abuse or other analyte, and allowing a suitable incubation time to occur to allow the expressed body fluid and buffer to mix with the identifying reagent; and (d) allowing the solution in the reaction well to contact an immunoassay test strip so as to conduct a lateral flow immunoassay and determine the presence or absence of a drug of abuse or other analyte in the body fluid sample.