Patent ID: 7429464

Claim:
A method for detecting bacterial pathogens in a sample, comprising the steps of: (a) suspending a sample comprising a medium and microorganisms, said microorganisms suspected of comprising bacterial pathogens; (b) mixing said sample, an absorbent and a first solution in a vessel; (c) separating said absorbent and said microorganisms from said medium and a bulk of said first solution and removing said medium and the bulk of said first solution from said vessel; (d) adding a second solution to said vessel to resuspend said absorbent and said microorganisms; and (e) detecting agglutination of said absorbent wherein the agglutination of said absorbent signifies said bacterial pathogens are present in said sample; wherein said first solution comprises sodium hydroxide, polyethylene glycol tert-octylphenyl ether and EDTA, and said second solution comprises Tris, sodium chloride and polyoxyethylenesorbitan monooleate.