| 摘要 |
<p>A method facilitating the rapid and objective classification and/or identification of an unknown biological specimen is disclosed. A physical sample of the specimen is controllably heated in accordance with a predetermined nonisothermal time dependent function causing the sample to undergo controlled thermal degradation and give off a characteristic time dependent sequence or evolution pattern of gaseous degradation components (molecular fragments). This sequence of gaseous degradation components is then directly passed into an ionization source and ionized to provide a respectively corresponding time dependent sequence of characteristic ions. These ions are then analyzed in a mass spectrometer and measured data is recorded representing the respective quantities of ions having particular masses being produced as a function of time or temperature. This recorded data for an unknown biological specimen is then correlated with analogous time or temperature dependent data earlier recorded for known biological specimen thereby facilitating the classification and/or identification of the unknown biological specimen. The method may be used to facilitate the classification and identification of many different types of biological specimen such as, for example, biological organisms (e.g., bacteria, yeast, molds, fungi, viruses and unicellular animals) and/or biological tissues (e.g., lymphocytes, leukocytes, phagocytes, erythrocytes and platelets).</p> |
