Patent ID: 8373861

Claim:
An apparatus for rapid analysis of microbiological materials in a liquid sample, comprising: (a) a specimen container for containing a liquid sample, the specimen container being made from a material that allows for propagation of light; (b) a housing having an incubation chamber shaped for holding the specimen container, the housing comprising a container holder mounted within the incubation chamber, the container holder being configured to hold the specimen container, and wherein the housing comprises a base, and the container holder comprises an upwardly extending, generally cylindrical wall mounted on the base, the wall having an open top end shaped for receiving the specimen container and a removable cap removably coupled to the base, the removable cap being shaped to surround and enclose the container holder; (c) a heating element mounted within the container holder for incubating any microbiological materials within the liquid sample; and (d) one or more light emitting sources and one or more light detectors mounted within the container holder for propagating light within the specimen container and positioned for measuring the light absorbed, emitted or scattered by the liquid sample as the microbiological materials are incubated within the incubation chamber over time, thereby detecting changes in amount of the light as the light propagates through the microbiological materials and producing a detector signal indicative of the changes; wherein the bottom portion of the wall of the container holder comprises a pair of diametrically opposed indents, and the specimen container comprises a pair of diametrically opposed recesses shaped to register with the indents and wherein at least one light emitting source is mounted in one of the pair of indents, and at least one detector is mounted in the other of the pair of indents to provide a field of view of at a 180° angle to the optical path of the at least one light emitting source.