Patent ID: 8062202

Claim:
A centrifuge blood processing system for separating fluid components comprising: a separation chamber rotating about a central rotation axis, at least one pump regulating fluid flow in said separation chamber; a detector in optical communication with said separation chamber to receive and detect intensity of light from said at least two regions; and a controller comprising means for comparing intensities in said at least two regions, said regions comprising a plasma region and a red blood cell region, said regions being placed such that, under normal circumstances, said plasma region observes primarily plasma and said red blood cell region observes primarily red blood cells and means for distinguishing incipient spill over changes in fluid flow in said separation chamber as a function of said intensities of transmitted light received from said at least two regions; means for computing a first intensity ratio of intensity of said plasma region to intensity of said red blood cell region; and means for declaring a state of testing for possible spill over whenever said first intensity ratio exceeds a predetermined value; and means for regulating the speed of said at least one pump or the speed of said separation chamber in response to signals from said computational apparatus to avoid spill over of cellular components from said separation chamber.