ASTar kits

An ASTar kit contains two disposables, a sample preparation cartridge and an AST disc 

Cartridge

The cartridge contains all reagents and disposable articles needed for sample preparation, concentration determination, dilution and growth medium adaptation.

The reagents for this are pre-deposited in the cartridge in the form of a combination of frozen or freeze-dried and room-temperature liquids. It also contains components for internal liquid transport and zones that are intended for temperature regulating the sample during the analysis.

The cartridge contains a function that filters millimetre-sized resin composites present in many types of blood culture bottles and otherwise risk interfering with the analysis. Finally, it also has barcodes for identifying and linking the cartridge and patient sample.

The cartridge is stored at room temperature.

AST disc

The AST disc is used for AST and concentration determination.

It contains culturing chambers with prefilled antibiotics in various concentrations used for AST, chambers without antibiotics  used as controls, and chambers used to determine the concentration in the added sample. It also contains channels for quick and effective distribution of samples to the culturing chambers and structures that allow air supply to the chambers without the supply affecting the imaging analysis.

The number of culturing chambers totals more than 330, furthermore, the format and placement of the chambers is adapted for quick reading, a prerequisite for rapid analysis of the large number of chambers. The AST disc also contains a unique barcode for identification and linking to each respective sample preparation cartridge and patient.  

The disc is stored at room temperature.