Patent ID: 7384793

Claim:
A biological measurement system for measuring the concentration of components included in a sample obtained in aerosol form from a patient, the system comprising: (a) collecting means for collecting the sample in aerosol form from a patient comprising a collection vessel with an inside surface, said vessel having an aperture for allowing the sample to enter said vessel in aerosol form in order to be collected within said vessel and deposited onto said inside surface; (b) concentrating means for mechanically collecting the sample from the inside surface of the collecting means, which when actuated, mechanically collects said sample from said inside surface of said collecting means to form a spatially concentrated sample which is transferred to a region within said vessel where the concentrated sample is optically interrogated, said concentrating means including means for scraping said inside surface where the sample is deposited; (c) marking means for optically labeling the components present in the concentrated sample to produce labeled components; and (d) interrogating means for optically interrogating said labeled components and thereby generating a measure of the concentration of components present in the sample.