Disposable Blood Test Device

Abstract

A disposable device for testing the contents of accessible body cavities is provided by a glove of impermeable material having a pad of bibulous material impregnated with a test composition affixed to the thumb of the glove in a position contactable by the tip of any of the fingers thereof. The test pad may be affixed either to the base of the thumb of the glove or to the inner surface of the distal end thereof or to both positions. When the pad of bibulous material is impregnated with a blood diagnostic composition the device is useful in the detection of occult blood in accessible body cavities such as the rectum.

Description

The invention relates to a convenient disposable device for testing the contents of accessible body cavities, such as the rectum, in the course of palpation of the body cavity by a physician. Such a device is provided by a glove of impermeable material having a pad of bibulous material impregnated with a test composition affixed to the thumb of the glove in a position contactable by the tip of any of the fingers thereof. The test pad may be affixed either to the base of the thumb or to the inner surface of the distal end thereof or to both positions. In a particularly useful form of the invention the test pad is impregnated with a blood diagnostic composition.

The presence of occult blood in the rectal contents may be indicative of gastrointestinal cancer or ulcers or of hemorrhoids and means for rapidly and conveniently detecting the presence of such blood in the rectal contents without carrying out complicated laboratory procedures is highly desirable. The test device of the invention will be more fully described with reference to its use for the detection of occult blood in body cavity contents.

An illustrative form of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a representation in palm view of the device of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a representation of the device of the invention as used in testing any substance adhering to a finger tip of the device; and

FIG. 3 is a partial section on line 3--3 of FIG. 2.

In the drawing, 1 is a glove of an impermeable material, such as rubber or other elastic or plastic material and 2 is the impregnated test patch affixed to the external base of the thumb portion of glove 1 or to the distal end thereof as indicated at 2' in dotted lines.

The patch may be made of paper, cloth, felt or other bibulous material, impregnated with a composition activated by the presence of blood to undergo a color change. Suitable compositions for the detection of blood are well known in the art. They include peroxidic substances which release under acidic conditions hydrogen peroxide or other active oxidants and indicator substances oxidizable by the released oxidant to form highly colored reaction products.

Typical peroxidic substances include inorganic compounds, such as peroxides, perborates and persulfates of the alkali and alkaline earth metals and organic peroxides and organic hydroperoxides such as cumenehydroperoxide and diisopropylbenzenehydroperoxide.

Suitable oxidizable dye-forming compounds include benzidine, o-tolidine, o-toluidine, o-phenylene-diamine, N,N'-dimethyl-p-phenylene-diamine, N,N'-diethyl-p-phenylene-diamine, p-anisidine, o-cresol, m-cresol, p-cresol, .alpha.-naphthol, .beta.-naphthol, catechol, guaiacol and pyrogallol.

The acidic component of the composition is preferably a normally solid, water-soluble organic acid such as citric and oxalic acids.

A typical impregnating composition consists of 100 parts by weight of citric acid, 10 parts by weight of benzidine and 25 parts by weight of barium peroxide. This composition will develop a blue color in the presence of blood hemoglobin.

The test patches may be made by impregnating filter paper with an aqueous solution of the citric acid, drying the paper, impregnating the dried paper with a suspension of the barium peroxide in a chloroform solution of the benzidine and evaporating the chloroform. The dried impregnated paper is cut into patches of suitable size and shape and the patches are affixed to the base of the thumb portion of rubber gloves with a suitable adhesive, such as rubber cement.

Claims

We claim:

1. A disposable test device comprising a glove of liquid impermeable material and a pad of bibulous material impregnated with a blood diagnostic composition capable of undergoing a color change in the presence of blood affixed to the inner surface of the thumb portion of the device in a position contactable by the tip of any of the finger portions thereof.

2. A disposable test device as defined in claim 1 wherein the blood diagnostic composition comprises a peroxidic substance, a solid organic acid and an indicator oxidizable with an accompanying color change in the presence of hemoglobin.

3. A disposable test device as defined in claim 2 wherein the peroxidic substance is an alkaline earth peroxide.

4. A disposable test device as defined in claim 2 wherein the oxidizable indicator is an aryldiamine, a phenol or a naphthol.