Instrumentation for Acoustical Discrimination of Biological Cells.

摘要

Described is a new type of laboratory instrument for rapid automatic detection and counting of biological cells in clinical applications or for biological research. There are a number of important applications which involve counting rapidly the number of cells of a particular kind contained in a mixture with other constituents. The most common application is the counting of blood cells,though there are many other applications for such an instrument. The approach here is to develop means for detection and discrimination of cells which depends on the effect produced on a narrow acoustic beam by a cell passing through the beam. Passage of the cell through the beam could cause a change in the power transmitted, a phase shift,or some other perturbation of the transmitted signal. Most of the effort in this report period is devoted to resonator improvement,sensitivity evaluation,signal processing and flow control. The work to date on this program is described fully in the body of this report.