Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 5
Claim 1
Independent Claim
182 words
A method of identifying a strain of microorganism in a liquid sample comprising the steps of dividing the sample into at least 18 sub-samples, inoculating each of the sub-samples with a growth-inhibiting agent whose reaction with the sub-samples has characteristics capable of identifying the strain of microorganism in said sample, the identity and/or quantity of the growth-inhibiting agent inoculated into each of said sub-samples being different, incubating the sub-samples to develop potentially significant differences in the growth of microorganism in each of them, reading a measure of the growth of the microorganism in each sub-sample, and comparing the growth readings with a bank of microorganism-identifying data relative to said growth-inhibiting agents by quadratic discriminant function analysis, whereby the strain of microorganism in the sample is identified, said growth-inhibiting agents being selected from the group consisting of acriflavine, 9-amino-acridine, auramine O, brilliant green, cetrimide, cobalt chloride, cupric chloride, cycloserine, 3,5-dibromosalicylic acid, dodecylamine hydrochloride, 5-fluorouracil, floxuridine, malachite green, methylene blue, omadine disulfide, sodium omadine, sodium azide, thallous acetate, 2',3',4'-trihydroxyacetophenone, bacitracin, carbenicillin, cephalothin, colistin, kanamycin, methenamine mandelate, nalidixic acid, nitrofurantoin, novobiocin, polymyxin B and tetracycline.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
182 words
A method of identifying a strain of microorganism in a liquid sample comprising the steps of dividing the sample into at least 18 sub-samples, inoculating each of the sub-samples with a growth-inhibiting agent whose reaction with the sub-samples has characteristics capable of identifying the strain of microorganism in said sample, the identity and/or quantity of the growth-inhibiting agent inoculated into each of said sub-samples being different, incubating the sub-samples to develop potentially significant differences in the growth of microorganism in each of them, reading a measure of the growth of the microorganism in each sub-sample, and comparing the growth readings with a bank of microorganism-identifying data relative to said growth-inhibiting agents by quadratic discriminant function analysis, whereby the strain of microorganism in the sample is identified, said growth-inhibiting agents being selected from the group consisting of acriflavine, 9-amino-acridine, auramine O, brilliant green, cetrimide, cobalt chloride, cupric chloride, cycloserine, 3,5-dibromosalicylic acid, dodecylamine hydrochloride, 5-fluorouracil, floxuridine, malachite green, methylene blue, omadine disulfide, sodium omadine, sodium azide, thallous acetate, 2',3',4'-trihydroxyacetophenone, bacitracin, carbenicillin, cephalothin, colistin, kanamycin, methenamine mandelate, nalidixic acid, nitrofurantoin, novobiocin, polymyxin B and tetracycline.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
12 words
A method of claim 1, wherein said growth readings are obtained photometrically.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
27 words
A method of claim 1 or 2, wherein one additional sub-sample is maintained free of a growth-inhibiting agent, said additional sub-sample being used as a control sub-sample.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
134 words
A method of claim 3, wherein the concentrations of growth-inhibiting agents in the inoculated sub-samples are approximately as follows: acriflavine (5 or 20 mcg./ml), 9-aminoacridine (6.7 mcg./ml.), auramine 0 (107 mcg./ml.), brilliant green (1,2 or 3.3 mcg./ml.), cetrimide (80 mcg./ml.), cobalt chloride (250 mcg./ml.), cupric chloride (250 mcg./ml.), cycloserine (80 or 160 mcg./ml.), 3,5-dibromosalicylic acid (500 mcg./ml.), dodecylamine hydrochloride (12.5 or 50 mcg./ml.), 5-fluorouracil (5.3 mcg./ml.), floxuridine (6 or 24 mcg./ml.), malachite green (2 mcg./ml.), methylene blue (170 mcg./ml.), omadine disulfide (3.7 mcg./ml.), sodium omadine (5 mcg./ml.), sodium azide (50 mcg./ml.), thallous acetate (100 mcg./ml.), 2',3',4'-trihydroxy-acetophenone (250 mcg./ml.), bacitracin (12 units/ml.), carbenicillin (33 mcg./ml.), cephalothin (10 mcg./ml.), colistin (8.7 mcg./ml.), kanamycin (3.3 mcg./ml.), methenamine mandelate (667 mcg./ml.), nalidixic acid (4 mcg./ml.), nitrofurantoin (10 mcg./ml.), novobiocin (20 mcg./ml.), polymyxin B (33 mcg./ml.), tetracycline (0.33 mcg./ml.).