| abstract |
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for disease detection. The apparatus and method use a radiation source to irradiate a sample. An analyzer measures the absorption and/or emission spectra from the sample to detect the presence of the disease state in the sample. In this regard, a comparator may compare the measured spectra with the spectrum of a control. Analysis of the parameters of the spectra including, but not limited to, peak intensity wavelength, amplitude at the peak intensity, area ratio of left and right portions of the emission spectra, and shifts of the peak intensity wavelength, allows determination of HIV infection, Hepatitis A, B and C, and other diseases. Selective absorbents, such as C-M Affi Gel Blue and activated charcoal, may be used to treat the samples before measurement, which is found to improve discrimination of diseased and non-diseased samples. The present invention is capable of detecting HIV infection at a stage when it is still undetectable by conventional diagnosis methods. |