Patent ID: 8669118

Claim:
A method for collecting cells on a filter, comprising: positioning the filter in a specimen fluid containing suspended cells of a biological specimen; determining a maximum rate of aspiration of the specimen fluid across the filter by applying one or more initial vacuum pulses across the filter to draw specimen fluid across the filter such that the cells cover at least a portion of the filter, determining a filter coverage quantity as a result of the one or more initial vacuum pulses, and selecting a maximum rate of aspiration from a pre-determined data set corresponding to the determined filter coverage quantity, wherein the data set comprises a range of maximum rates of aspiration corresponding to pre-selected filter coverage quantities; selecting from the data set at least one of a maximum amplitude of vacuum and a maximum duration of vacuum corresponding to the determined maximum rate of aspiration; and applying a further vacuum pulse across the filter to collect cells on the filter while controlling an amplitude and a duration of the further vacuum to correspond to the at least one of the selected maximum amplitude of vacuum and the selected maximum duration of vacuum.