Centrifugal extraction of plasma from whole blood on a rotating disk.

We present a centrifugal process for the extraction of plasma from sediment by a decanting structure, terminating with metered plasma which is readily available for subsequent on-disk processing. Our technique supplies 2 microl plasma from 5 microl of whole blood at moderate spinning frequencies of 40 Hz within 20 s, only. The residual cell concentration in the purified plasma amounts to less than 0.11%, independent of the frequency of rotation. A capillary duct connects the extracted plasma to subsequent on-disk processing units.