FR2688888A1 - DEVICE IN PARTICULAR FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MICROTECHNICS OF ANALYSIS. - Google Patents

Abstract

The device comprises a cylindrical body (11) extended at its upper end by a crown ring (12) and at its lower end by a frustoconical segment (13), itself extended by a microtube (10) inserted into a rectangular tab (14) from the two faces of which it projects, and which is extended as far as the upper edge of the frustoconical segment (13), at which a first annular projection (15) is arranged around the cylindrical body (11), at a short distance above which a second annular projection (16) is arranged, the diameter of the said annular projections being substantially smaller than that of the crown ring (12) and being very slightly greater than the internal diameter of the standard test tubes in which the device (1) is intended to be placed, the crown ring (12) coming to bear with its lower edge on the upper edge (21) of the said standard test tubes.

Description

The present invention relates to a device including a micro-tube

  intended for microtechnology of analysis, in particular for the detection of erythrocyte agglutinates, said device having the advantageous characteristic of being able to adapt to standard test tubes, of the hemolysis tube type, commonly used in

  medical analysis laboratories.

  We know the constraints attached to certain analyzes, in particular immuno-hematological, which must be able to be implemented with very small quantities of

  products and lead to easily readable results.

  The devices used for this purpose range from standard hemolysis tubes to 96-well microplates, which have the first disadvantage of requiring the use of relatively large quantities of products, and the second, that of comprising a large number of microtubes and to be consequently of delicate handling, requiring in addition to resort to a specific instrument for its centrifugation. The present invention overcomes these drawbacks of known devices by proposing a device which can be adapted to standard test tubes of the hemolysis tube type, which gives it the advantage of great ease of handling linked to great flexibility of implementation, due to the fact that it can be used individually or in combination with one or more other identical tubes, depending on the type of analysis to be performed. The present invention thus relates to a device incorporating a micro-tube which is essentially characterized in that it is produced by molding a semi-rigid plastic material of the polyethylene type and in that it consists of a body cylindrical extended at its upper part by a crown of larger diameter and at its lower part by a frustoconical segment itself extended by a micro-tube inserted in a rectangular tongue on the two sides of which it projects, and which extends up to the upper edge of the frustoconical segment at the level of which is disposed around the cylindrical body a first annular projection, a short distance above which is located a second annular projection, the diameter of said annular projections being substantially smaller than that of the body cylindrical end. In accordance with the invention, the annular projections surrounding the cylindrical body have a diameter very slightly greater than the internal diameter of a standard test tube, so as to center and keep the device in vertical position in said test tube, whose upper edge bears on the edge

  lower end crown.

  Still in accordance with the invention, the rectangular tongue extends downwards by a certain length beyond the micro-tube, so as to allow on the one hand the easy gripping of the device during handling, and on the other hand affixing an inscription allowing

the identification of the tube.

  Furthermore, according to an advantageous embodiment of the device according to the invention, the end crown has two flats allowing the writing of a reference number and facilitating the gripping of the

  device by its upper part.

  The characteristics and advantages of the device according to the invention will be better understood on reading

  of the description which follows, made with reference to the appended drawing

  which represents an embodiment, being understood

  that this description is in no way limiting

with respect to the invention.

  In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 shows a perspective view

of a device according to the invention.

  Figure 2 shows a sectional view of this

  same device set up in a test tube.

  If we refer first to Figure 1, we see that a device 1 according to the invention comprises a cylindrical body 11 extended at its upper part by a crown 12 and at its lower part by a frustoconical segment 13 itself extended by a micro-tube 10 whose lower end 19 is frustoconical and which is inserted in a rectangular tongue 14 used for affixing an inscription allowing the identification of the tube. The cylindrical body It is provided with two annular projections, one 15 arranged at its base and the other 16 a short distance above, the diameters of these two annular projections being equal and slightly smaller than that of the

end crown 12.

  The end ring 12 is provided with two flats 17 and 18 intended for the affixing of reference numbers and also to allow better gripping of the

  device 1 by its upper part.

  If we now refer to Figure 2, we see in this figure the device 1 according to the invention set

  place in a standard test tube 2.

  It can be seen that the annular projections 15 and 16 allow the device 1, and therefore the micro-tube 10, to be kept in the vertical position, since it is in slight compression in the test tube 2, while the crown 12 comes to bear on the upper edge 21 of tube 2, from where it

protrudes slightly.

  In addition to the advantages already explained, the device according to the invention offers that, which is particularly appreciable, of not requiring suitable racks, replaced by standard test tubes which are commonly placed in

also standard racks.

  The device according to the invention can thus be placed in standard centrifuges, unlike certain existing devices, which require the use of

  centrifuges adapted to their dimensions.

  It goes without saying that the present invention cannot

  be limited to the foregoing description of one of its modes of

  achievement, likely to undergo a number of

  modifications without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims (2)

  1) Device intended in particular for the implementation of microtechnology analysis, characterized in that it comprises a cylindrical body (11) extended at its upper end by a crown (12) and at its lower end by a frustoconical segment ( 13) itself extended by a microtube (10) inserted in a rectangular tongue (14) on the two faces of which it projects, and which extends to the upper edge of the frustoconical segment (13), at the level of which is disposed around the cylindrical body (11) a first annular projection (15), at a short distance above which is disposed a second annular projection (16), the diameter of said annular projections being substantially less than that of the crown (12) and being very slightly greater than the internal diameter of the standard test tubes (2) in which the device (1) is intended to be placed, the crown (12) coming to bear by its lower edge on the   upper edge (21) of said standard test tubes (2).   2) Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the crown (12) is provided with two flats (17, 18) allowing on the one hand the writing of a reference number, and on the other hand a better grip of the device by its the top part.