FIELD: measuring equipment.
SUBSTANCE: invention relates to the field of measurement technology, allowing measurement of concentrations of suspended particles in a liquid, and more specifically to coherent fluctuation nephelometers (hereinafter CFN), in particular microbiological analyzers designed on their basis, which allow to measure the growth of microbiological flora including in biological samples in a wide range of turbidity values, including for the purpose of diagnosis, and to evaluate the morphological composition of suspended microbial particles. Claimed method and apparatus allow measuring the concentrations and morphology of suspended particles in a liquid in a wide range of concentrations and sizes due to the simultaneous recording of the intensity of the direct transmitted radiation (T) and fluctuations in the intensity of the scattered light (FISL) at two or more scattering angles, calculation of the linear combination of the initial FISL signals at different angles and the signal of the turbidimeter (T), preferably to a power of 2 to 4 with different weighting factors, which are determined by calibration for a suspension of each type of analyte. According to the calculated linear combination of signals, the particle concentration is judged, the FIRS signals at different angles judge the particle morphology in the sample, which makes it possible to obtain a monotonic dependence of the resulting signal over a wide range of concentrations (103–1010 CFU/ml) and in a wide range of sizes (10 nm – 100 mcm). Also, the ratio of FISL signals at different angles makes it possible to evaluate the morphology of the particles under study.
EFFECT: expansion of the dynamic range of the measured turbidity and evaluation of the morphological composition of particles in the sample under study.
6 cl, 7 dwg
