Programmed test tube rack for manually performing medical diagnostic assays

Claim 1

An apparatus for performing medical diagnostic assays requiring the manual performance of a plurality of various operations in sequential order on a group of test tubes, comprising, in combination, a test tube support structure, said test tube support structure having a unitary top face, said top face comprising a plurality of rows of test tube support stations all of which are fixed with respect to said unitary top face, each row having a plurality of laterally spaced and aligned individual test tube stations, the individual stations of each row being in perpendicular alignment with corresponding stations of each of the other rows, the centers of all of the individual stations of all of the rows defining on said top face a grid or pattern of horizontal and vertical lines passing through the centers of all of said stations to permit individual test tubes to be individually manually moved perpendicularly from row to row stepwisely upon the completion of particular assay operations thereupon, one or more of said stations being omitted from one or more of said rows to provide for skipping of certain operations on certain test tubes being manually advanced stepwisely perpendicularly from row to row in the performance of a particular assay, and indicia along each row descriptive of the particular operation to be performed on test tubes stationed along that row in the performance of a particular assay.

Claim 2

An apparatus for performing medical diagnostic assays requiring the manual performance of a plurality of various operations in sequential order on a group of test tubes, comprising, in combination, a test tube support structure, said test tube support structure having a unitary top face, said top face comprising a plurality of rows of test tube support stations all of which are fixed with respect to said unitary top face, each row having a plurality of laterally spaced and aligned individual test tube stations, the individual stations of each row being in perpendicular alignment with corresponding stations of each of the other rows, the centers of all of the individual stations of all of the rows defining on said top face a grid or pattern of horizontal and vertical lines passing through the centers of all of said stations to permit individual test tubes to be individually manually moved perpendicularly from row to row stepwisely upon the completion of particular assay operations thereupon, one or more of said stations being omitted from one or more of said rows to provide for skipping of certain operations on certain test tubes being manually advanced stepwisely perpendicularly from row to row in the performance of a particular assay, and indicia along each row descriptive of the particular operation to be performed on test tubes stationed along that row in the performance of a particular assay.