Patent Document ID: 9274054
Application ID: 14299855
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A device for counting blood cells in a sample of whole blood, said device comprising: an aspiration/dispensing component that withdraws a sample of whole blood from a container and to deposit the sample of whole blood onto a slide; a spreader that spreads the sample of blood across the slide to create a blood smear; a dryer that dries the blood smear on the slide; a first imaging system that measures an absorbance or a reflectance value of light attributable to hemoglobin in a plurality of red blood cells in each of a plurality of sections of the blood smear on the slide to determine an optical density for each of the sections of the blood smear; a second imaging system that records a magnified, two-dimensional digital image of an area of the blood smear; and a computer comprising a processor and a computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to: (a) measure an absorbance or a reflectance value of light attributable to hemoglobin in a plurality of red blood cells in each of a plurality of sections of the blood smear on the slide to determine an optical density for each of the sections of the blood smear; (b) identify an analysis area of the blood smear that has a suitable thickness for analysis; (c) determine an optical density of the entire blood smear; (d) record a magnified two-dimensional digital image of the analysis area; (e) count a plurality of blood cells in the analysis area; (f) determine a volume of the sample that is present in the analysis area by calculating a ratio of the optical density of the analysis area to the optical density of the entire blood smear and multiplying the ratio by the volume of the sample; (g) collect, analyze and store data from the two-dimensional digital image to count a plurality of blood cells in the sample.