Apparatus and method for determination of non-hemolyzed levels of occult blood in urine

摘要

An apparatus for analyzing a body-fluid sample disposed on a reagent pad is provided with a light bulb for successively illuminating a plurality of different portions of the reagent pad on which the body-fluid sample is disposed and a detector array for detecting light received from the reagent pad and generating a plurality of reflectance signals in response to light received from a corresponding one of the different portions of the reagent pad. The apparatus is also provided with means for determining whether the magnitude of one of the reflectance signals is substantially different than the magnitude of another of the reflectance signals. Where the body-fluid sample is urine, this capability allows the apparatus to detect the presence of non-hemolyzed in the urine sample. The light bulb may successively illuminate a plurality of overlapping portions of the reagent pad, and may successively illuminate at least three different portions of the reagent pad which are linearly offset from each other.