This invention relates to an aggregation sensor useful for the detection and analysis of aggregants in a sample, and methods, articles and compositions relating to such a sensor. In some embodiments, the routing fabric provides a communication pathway that routes signals to and from source and destination components. The methods include piercing a vessel with the needle component, dilating the pierced hole with the dilator component, retraction of the needle component, insertion of the catheter and withdrawal of the dilator. A runtime component performs conversion of an abstract query into a form that can be used against a particular physical data representation.