Patent ID: 8852505

Claim:
An integrated blood analyzer of whole blood contained in tubes, comprising: a single tube of blood; a drum that is configured to receive and hold the single tube of blood and to stir the single tube of blood by inversion, wherein the single tube of blood is stirred individually without assembly of the single tube of blood in a cassette support, the drum includes a plurality of recesses extending into the drum, each recess is of a different diameter to fit various sized tubes of blood, the stirring being carried out individually for the single tube of blood inserted into the respective recess; a controller connected to the drum to stir the single tube of blood by inversion in conditions controlled according to defined variable parameters, the defined variable parameters including variable values of at least one of stirring duration, a number of inversions, and a speed of inversion; an analysis unit performing analysis of the sample of blood from the singe tube of blood; an optical sensor located adjacent to the drum and configured to detect the presence of a stopper on the single tube of blood; a sampling means including; a needle configured to aspirate the blood sample from the single tube in the drum and pierce the stopper when the stopper is detected by the optical sensor, and a horizontal rail along which the sampling means moves to aspirate the sample of blood from the single tube of blood held in the drum and previously stirred by the drum and to move along the rail away from the drum to dispense the sample of blood into the analysis unit performing analysis of the sample of blood.