Patent ID: 7629165

Claim:
A method of testing a cell-containing sample for an analyte, comprising: providing a container having a plurality of fluidly discontinuous compartments, including a sample reacting compartment, different first and second reagents contained in first and second reagent compartments, respectively, and a signal detection compartment; receiving the cell-containing sample into the sample reacting compartment; illuminating the cell-containing sample in the container at a wavelength thereby creating a light scatter signal, reading the light scatter signal, and automatically calculating a hematocrit value using the light scatter signal and a predetermined linear relationship between reflectance and the hematocrit value at the wavelength; contacting a surface of the container with a device having a plurality of actuators; operating multiple different sets of the actuators to independently add the first and second reagents to the cell-containing sample in a variable sequence and time delay; moving at least a portion of the reacted cell-containing sample between the sample reacting compartment and the sample detection compartment using at least one of the sets of actuators; and reading an analyte-specific signal from the reacted cell-containing sample contained in the sample detection compartment, wherein the analyte-specific signal is a colorimetric, luminometric, or fluorimetric signal, and calculating a test result using the analyte-specific signal and the light scatter signal.