Patent ID: 7029628

Claim:
A medical device for measuring the concentration and/or percentages of one or more hemoglobin derivatives in a blood sample taken from a patient comprising; a) a housing; b) a holder for the blood sample contained within the housing; c) a light generating apparatus, contained within the housing comprising at least one compact light source emitting light in the visible region of the spectrum or at least one polychromatic light source and at least one light filter for separating the light from the polychromatic light source into distinct bandwidths along the visible spectrum; wherein the number of light sources or filters in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum is less than or equal to the number of hemoglobin derivatives to be measured and wherein the compact light source(s) or light filter(s) have bandwidths of about 7–50 nanometers; d) a light receiving apparatus contained within the housing comprising at least one light detector receiving light for determining one or more absorbance values of the blood sample at one or more wavelengths within the bandwidth of each light source or filter in the visible region of the spectrum; and e) a microprocessor for determining the concentration of each hemoglobin derivative from the measured absorbance values.