Patent ID: 8158341

Claim:
A method for identifying viral positive biological fluid donations in the fewest number of high-sensitivity test cycles, the method comprising: (a) providing a multiplicity of biological fluid donations; (b) taking a single aliquot from each of the multiplicity of fluid donations and combining said aliquots into a single master pool; (c) testing the master pool for viral indication using a high-sensitivity PCR test; (d) providing an indication to a user as to whether the master pool contains a viral positive sample; (e) where the master pool is found to contain a viral positive sample, defining an n-dimensional matrix, where n is an integer 2 or higher, the matrix comprising a multiplicity of elements, each individual element identified by a unique matrix notation, the matrix notation comprising at least a separate dimensional index for each dimension of the array; (f) taking a sample from each of the multiplicity of biological fluid donations; (g) mapping each sample to one of said multiplicity of elements of the matrix, each individual sample identified by its corresponding element's respective matrix notation; (h) taking at least n aliquots from each sample; (i) forming from the at least n aliquots of each sample one unique subpool for each group of elements having matrix notations with one common dimensional index, each of the subpools containing sample aliquots taken exclusively from samples mapped to elements in which one of the dimensional indices is fixed; (j) testing all of the subpools for viral indication using a high-sensitivity PCR test; (k) determining the fixed dimensional index of each subpool that returns a positive viral indication; (l) combining said fixed dimensional indices to identify a subset of matrix elements that contain a viral positive sample, thereby reducing the number of elements that may contain a viral positive sample; (m) providing an indication to a user as to the identities of the subset of matrix elements that may contain a viral positive sample; and (n) where positive indications are provided in more than one subpool in more than one dimensional index of the matrix then directly testing each of the potentially positive samples with a high-sensitivity PCR test to detect the presence of the viral contamination, and producing a positive indication when the sample containing the presence of the viral contamination is detected.