Combination blood lancet and analyzer

Abstract

Methods and systems for collecting and analyzing blood are provided. The methods and systems generally operate by collecting a blood sample on a portion of a lancet and subjecting the blood sample to optical spectroscopy.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method of collecting and analyzing blood, said method comprising:
 cutting the skin of a subject with a lancet;   collecting a blood sample of the subject with the lancet;   passing light through the blood sample on the lancet; and   collecting the light passed through the blood sample with an optical spectrometer for analysis of the blood sample.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises allowing the liquid blood sample to dry on the lancet to form a dried blood sample. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising subjecting the dried blood sample to optical spectroscopy. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein collecting the blood sample of the subject with the lancet comprises collecting a volume of less than 10 μL of blood. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein collecting the blood sample of the subject with the lancet comprises collecting a volume of less than 5 μL of blood. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein collecting the blood sample of the subject with the lancet comprises collecting a volume of less than 1 μL of blood. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising subjecting the dried blood sample to infrared spectroscopy. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising subjecting the dried blood sample to mid-infrared spectroscopy. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising conducting optical spectroscopy upon a plurality of dried blood samples obtained from a plurality of subjects to obtain a plurality of dried blood spectra. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising constructing a model from the plurality of dried blood spectra. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the model is constructed using one or more multivariate least squares methods. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the model is constructed using an augmented classical least squares method. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising utilizing the model to allow predictive analysis of blood chemistry of an unknown blood sample.