Compact blood culture apparatus

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention comprises a compact blood culture apparatus for detecting biologically active agents in a large number of blood culture vials that is simple and can be produced at very low cost.
It incorporates individual vial identification and the application of more than one microorganism detection method within a single instrument.
The inventive apparatus provides low system sensitivity variations from one vial station to the next and does not require electronic or optoelectronic components, electrical wires, or optical fibers on a moving vial rack.
As a result of these several advantages, it has long-term reliability in operation.
A culture medium and blood specimen are introduced into sealable glass vials with optical sensing means and a bar code pattern for individual vial identification.
A large number of such vials are arranged radially on a rotatable drum within an incubator which is used to promote microorganism growth.
Sensor stations are mounted to the mainframe of the blood culture apparatus at such a distance from the drum that during its rotation, individual vials pass through a sensor station.
In a first embodiment of an apparatus according to the present invention, the inner bottom of each vial includes a fluorescent chemical sensor, and a linear bar code label is attached to one side.
The vials are arranged radially on a rotatable drum within an incubator, with the vial necks oriented towards the drum axis of rotation.
A preferred arrangement of the vials on the drum is to group the vials using disk-like segments.
This approach facilitates vial insertion and removal.
A lower portion of each vial extends radially outwardly from the outer peripheral surface of the drum, and the bar code label is positioned on this lower portion to facilitate scanning.
For each disk-like segment, at least one sensor station is required.
If two or more detection principles are applied, then two or more sensor stations per segment are necessary.
In addition to the sensor stations, the instrument comprises one bar code reader per segment