Patents Represented by Attorney Walter C. Ramm
  • Patent number: 4055396
    Abstract: A tray and carrier assembly which is adapted to simultaneously handle a plurality of open ended receptacles such as test tubes or the like. The tray includes a member having the underside thereof removably engaged by a support. Subtending the support in spaced relation and connected thereto is a base member. The tray member is provided with a plurality of openings in which are loosely disposed retainer elements which frictionally engage the open ends of the receptacles whereby the remainder of the receptacles depend freely from the tray member when the latter is assembled on the support. The tray member and the support are provided with complementary interfitting means which coact so as to require the tray member to assume a predetermined relative position when assembled on the support.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 1976
    Date of Patent: October 25, 1977
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: Rolf Meyer, Manuel I. Martin
  • Patent number: 4029964
    Abstract: An improved transducer construction for a scintillation camera in which a light conducting element is equipped with a layer of moisture impervious material. A scintillation crystal is thereafter positioned in optical communication with the moisture impervious layer and the remaining surfaces of the scintillation crystal are encompassed by a moisture shield. Affixing the moisture impervious layer to the light conducting element prior to attachment of the scintillation crystal reduces the requirement for mechanical strength in the moisture impervious layer and thereby allows a layer of reduced thickness to be utilized. Preferably, photodetectors are also positioned in optical communication with the light conducting element prior to positioning the scintillation crystal in contact with the impervious layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 1975
    Date of Patent: June 14, 1977
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventor: John B. Ashe
  • Patent number: 4020348
    Abstract: A scintillation camera is suspended from an elevated gantry and is laterally movable. Sensors detecting the lateral position of the scintillation camera detector head produce signals which are combined with the detector head output signals to produce an image reflecting the occurrence of radioactive events within an expanded rectilinear field of view of the detector head. This image is stored using a recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 1975
    Date of Patent: April 26, 1977
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: Ronald E. Turcotte, Jay R. Wolff, Anthony P. Del Medico, Paul C. Lee
  • Patent number: 4005292
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for concurrently counting a plurality of radioactive samples. The position sensitive circuitry of a scintillation camera is employed to sort electrical pulses resulting from scintillations according to the geometrical locations of scintillations causing those pulses. A scintillation means, in the form of a scintillating crystal material or a liquid scintillator, is positioned proximate to an array of radioactive samples. Improvement in the accuracy of pulse classification may be obtained by employing collimating means. If a plurality of scintillation crystals are employed to measure the iodine-125 content of samples, a method and means are provided for correcting for variations in crystal light transmission properties, sample volume, and sample container radiation absorption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 1975
    Date of Patent: January 25, 1977
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: Donald L. Oesterlin, Raymond F. Obrycki
  • Patent number: 4004883
    Abstract: A support is provided which is arranged to accommodate a plurality of open-ended receptacles such as test tubes. The support includes openings and retainer members which cooperate to frictionally embrace the sides of the tubes so as to permit limited orbital motion of the tubes with respect to the openings. A sensing and leveling assembly beneath the bottoms of the tubes is arranged to cooperate with an arm located above the open ends of the tubes. The sensing and leveling assembly is resilient, such that upon engagement with the bottoms of the tubes they are gently forced against the arm, whereupon the relative positions of the tube bottoms are detected and noted by electronic means. The release of the arm allows the resilience in the sensing and leveling assembly to relax causing the bottoms of the tubes to be raised to a common horizontal plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 1975
    Date of Patent: January 25, 1977
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: Rolf Meyer, Manuel I. Martin, Ronald A. Bolton
  • Patent number: 3985165
    Abstract: A dosing apparatus is provided which is adapted to aspirate and dispense a first fluid in predetermined amounts. The apparatus includes an elongated tubular member which is connected at one end to a reversible pump for imparting controlled reverse flow of a second fluid within the tubular member during aspirating and dispensing of the first fluid from the opposite end of the tubular member. Disposed within the tubular member is an element for inhibiting the intermixing of the two fluids. A plurality of such elements, which are vaned and baffle-like, are disposed within the tubular member and arranged in end-to-end relation. The vanes of successive baffle elements project outwardly towards the interior surface of the tubular member and are curved longitudinally in opposite directions whereby the fluid flow past the baffle elements is subject to abrupt changes in directions at each successive baffle member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 1975
    Date of Patent: October 12, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: Menachem Tamir, Manuel I. Martin, Robert J. Magill
  • Patent number: 3984923
    Abstract: A system for preschool screening of children through a series of question and answer routines presented via an audiovisual console. The console has a slide display of graphic information and an audio instruction to the child typically to select one of a plurality of figures displayed by activation of a corresponding, adjacent button. Additionally, the child may be asked to count a predetermined number through button activations, to respond to the visual display through selected lenses in a hood for vision testing, or to receive audio instructions through a set of earphones which are selectively attenuated in earphone volume to determine hearing acuity. The screening system has a logic control operative in response to coded instructions which are stored in a set of registers from a magnetic tape system. The magnetic tape system also provides the control of audio and visual information for an entire series of tests.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 1974
    Date of Patent: October 12, 1976
    Assignee: Searle Medidata, Inc.
    Inventors: Edward B. Rawson, Bernard Krasnick, Theodore Schaefer, Jr.
  • Patent number: 3984689
    Abstract: A scintillation camera is provided with electrical components which expand the intrinsic maximum rate of acceptance for processing of pulses emanating from detected radioactive events. Buffer storage is provided to accommodate temporary increases in the level of radioactivity. An early provisional determination of acceptability of pulses allows many unacceptable pulses to be discarded at an early stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 1974
    Date of Patent: October 5, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventor: Roger E. Arseneau
  • Patent number: 3982128
    Abstract: A scintillation probe employing two scintillation detectors having partially overlapping fields of view. The overlapping fields of view allow radioactive events from a particular spatial region to be identified and tabulated separately. Preferably, one crystal is annularly positioned with respect to the other and is collimated so that radioactive events from the left ventricle of the human heart can be isolated to a large extent from simultaneous background. Useful cardiac information is obtained in a non-invasive technique of medical examination of living patients requiring only a single injection of a radioisotope.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 1975
    Date of Patent: September 21, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: Mark W. Groch, Frank R. Whitehead
  • Patent number: 3982133
    Abstract: A collimator changing assembly mounted on the support structure of a scintillation camera. A vertical support column positioned proximate the detector support column with a plurality of support arms mounted thereon in a rotatable cantilevered manner at separate vertical positions. Each support arm is adapted to carry one of the plurality of collimators which are interchangeably mountable on the underside of the detector and to transport the collimator between a store position remote from the detector and a change position underneath said detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 1974
    Date of Patent: September 21, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: Edward C. Jupa, Raymond L. Meeder, Edward K. Richter
  • Patent number: 3967120
    Abstract: A radiation analyzer which measures radiation from a plurality of radiation sources in a single measurement cycle to distinguish between the radioactivity level received from a plurality of radiation sources. The radiation level of one of the sources may be known so that that source serves as a radiation standard with which to compare the other sources. Alternatively, the sources may all be known and the comparative radioactivity levels utilized to obtain information concerning some other parameter, such as external attenuation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 1974
    Date of Patent: June 29, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: John B. Ashe, Peter F. Berry, James D. Hall
  • Patent number: 3967122
    Abstract: A radiation analyzer which employs a single photodetector and a plurality of scintillators. Light filters interposed between selected ones of the scintillators selectively attenuate radiation of a predetermined energy range. Plural analyzers each associated with a single scintillator and each receiving electrical pulses from the photodetector attenuated to a different degree are adjusted to tabulate pulses of amplitudes which differ in accordance with the degree of attenuation of pulses received by the analyzers from the photodetector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 1974
    Date of Patent: June 29, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: John B. Ashe, Peter F. Berry, James D. Hall
  • Patent number: 3955088
    Abstract: A scintillation camera system for use in positron imaging in which radiation scattered in an object under study is screened and Compton events, as well as primary radiation, are imaged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 1974
    Date of Patent: May 4, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: Gerd Muehllehner, Ronald J. Jaszczak
  • Patent number: 3955087
    Abstract: A nucleonic device for measuring the moisture content of bulk materials using a radioisotopic fast-neutron source such as lithium-7 admixed with an alpha-particle emitter, such as americium-241, as a means of minimizing the thickness of the layer of bulk material required proximate to the moisture sensor for a neutron-reflection moisture gauge for proper operation of said gauge. Minimization of the required thickness of the bulk material permits use of a neutron-reflection moisture gauge for measurements of bulk materials on lightly-loaded belts and other types of conveyors where measurements have previously been impracticable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 1974
    Date of Patent: May 4, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventor: John B. Ashe
  • Patent number: 3946231
    Abstract: Automatic liquid scintillation counting apparatus including a scintillating medium in the elevator ram of the sample changing apparatus. An appropriate source of radiation, which may be the external source for standardizing samples, produces reference scintillations in the scintillating medium which may be used for correction of the gain of the counting system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 1968
    Date of Patent: March 23, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventor: Richard B. Frank
  • Patent number: 3942535
    Abstract: A rechargeable tissue stimulating system with a telemetry controlled power source. A constant current power source acting through an induction coil externally located with respect to a living patient is used to induce current flow in a charging circuit located beneath the skin of the patient. The charging circuit, in turn, recharges a battery which powers an electronic generator used for applying electrical pulses to stimulate living tissue in order to maintain bodily functions in the patient. A telemetry circuit connected to the charging circuit provides a magnetic output signal controlling externally located means associated with the power source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 1974
    Date of Patent: March 9, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventor: Joseph H. Schulman
  • Patent number: 3941479
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for analyzing blood or other biological fluids containing cells or particles of interest by passing them sequentially through a narrow flow chamber where a repetitive physical stimulus, such as a plurality of beams of light, is spaced at intervals to form a code along the length of the flow chamber to elicit responses from the particles. These responses are then decoded and used to classify the particles according to type.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 1974
    Date of Patent: March 2, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventor: Frank R. Whitehead
  • Patent number: 3937964
    Abstract: A scintillation camera for use in radioisotope imaging to determine the concentration of radionuclides in a two-dimensional area in which means is provided for second order positional resolution. The phototubes, which normally provide only a single order of resolution, are modified to provide second order positional resolution of radiation within an object positioned for viewing by the scintillation camera. The phototubes are modified in that multiple anodes are provided to receive signals from the photocathode in a manner such that each anode is particularly responsive to photoemissions from a limited portion of the photocathode. Resolution of radioactive events appearing as an output of this scintillation camera is thereby improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 1974
    Date of Patent: February 10, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventor: Gerd Muehllehner
  • Patent number: 3937969
    Abstract: A gamma ray camera system, such as an Anger-type camera, fitted with a collimator comprising an arrangement of straight and corrugated strips of lead foil. One embodiment comprises a parallel multi-channel collimator employing corrugated strips with regular, parallel corrugations. A second embodiment comprises a focusing multi-channel collimator employing corrugated strips having corrugations which focus substantially to a common point and are generally wider and deeper on the side more remote from said common point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 1974
    Date of Patent: February 10, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventor: Gerd Muehllehner
  • Patent number: RE28738
    Abstract: A means for determining counting efficiency in a liquid scintillation system. Pulse amplitudes are accumulated as are the number of pulses contributing thereto. The accumulated pulse amplitude sum is divided by the accumulated number of pulses to produce an average pulse amplitude for the pulses measured. The average pulse amplitude may be correlated to average detection efficiency by an ascertainable function. Through average efficiency of detection the actual rate of radioactive disintegrations may be computed from the count rate measured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1974
    Date of Patent: March 16, 1976
    Assignee: G. D. Searle & Co.
    Inventors: Gerardus Huibrecht Kulberg, Roedolf Hendrik Deinert