JPS6195248A - Apparatus for confirming and distributing specimen - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the use efficiency of a reaction container and to maximize the number of replaceable specimen containers, by making a transfer process from a measuring item confirming position to a distribution position synchronous to a pretreatment process for pretreating the specimen to be distributed corresponding to the reaction container. CONSTITUTION:After the bar code label 61 of a specimen container 5 is read at a reading position 64, serum is distributed in a reaction container 2 at a sampling position according to a measuring position 50. The reaction container 2 is washed with water at washing positions 54-57 and, after the absorbancy of distilled water is measured at the washing position 56, said container 2 passes an emitting position 51, a reagent distribution position 52 and a stirring position 53 and receives the measurement of absorbancy by luminous flux 32 and a spectrometer 30. If the measured absorbancy value of distilled water is subtracted from this reaction process measured data, the original data of the specimen to be measured is obtained. At this time, because the transfer process from the bar code reading position to the sampling position is synchronous to the pretreatment process of the reaction container, items to be measured in the future are confirmed with respect to all of the reaction containers prior to entering pretreatment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a means and medium for recognizing measurement items of a sample, and for example, a method for recognizing and dispensing a sample suitable for an automatic analyzer that measures components contained in serum samples. Regarding equipment.

[Background of the invention]

This is currently being carried out in clinical tests at hospitals, etc.

In blood tests, a certain amount of the sample to be measured is placed in a reaction container, a reagent corresponding to the measurement item is added to cause a chemical reaction, and a colorimetric or reaction rate measurement is performed using a spectrophotometer. There are many methods in which analysis results are obtained as concentration values of analytical components or specific units based on measurement results. In such an analysis method, a plurality of measurement items corresponding to each sample are usually requested, and therefore one sample is generally dispensed into a plurality of reaction vessels.

There are two main ways to recognize sample request items:
There are different types. That is, one method is to set an identification number at the setting position of the sample and register the requested item corresponding to this number, and the other is to attach a recognition medium such as a barcode label to the side of the sample container to recognize the requested item and use a recognition means such as a barcode label to recognize the requested item. This is a method of recognizing items to be measured using a barcode reader and a correspondence table between barcodes and requested items.

In the former case, it is better to register the requested items and set the samples at the same time, or to create a correspondence table of samples and their setting positions after registering the requested items and set the samples according to this table. It is necessary to prevent this. However, in the latter case, the requested items can be recognized from the sample itself, so the two tasks of registering the requested items and setting the sample can be separated, and a correspondence table between samples and their setting positions can be created and the sample can be sampled according to this table. There is no need to set up the . Moreover, since sample containers can be exchanged before the requested item is recognized, for example, if an emergency sample is to be measured first, it can be replaced with a general sample, and workers can freely schedule the order in which samples are measured. be able to. Therefore, the latter method is extremely useful.

By the way, a sample is dispensed and a reagent is injected into the reaction container, and a light beam traverses the reaction vessel.The light beam is divided into spectra, and light absorption is measured through wavelength selection according to the item selection. In automatic analyzers in which a single reaction vessel is generally used many times, the reaction vessel is contaminated by sample lipids and the like. Therefore, we introduced a preprocessing method that measures the light absorption of a reaction vessel containing distilled water prior to sample dispensing, and subtracted this light absorption from the measurement data after sample dispensing. Prevent errors in measurement data. Measuring optical absorption requires the selected wavelength as well as the requested items, so the device must recognize the measurement items of the sample to be dispensed in the future before dispensing the sample.

In the sample container row, if the recognition position of the requested item is far enough from the dispensing position, the requested item will be recognized earlier, but conversely, the number of samples with measurement items assigned to reaction containers will increase. As a result, many sample containers in the sample container row cannot be replaced.

Furthermore, since it takes a long time from recognizing the requested item to dispensing, the time from starting the automatic analyzer to actually dispensing becomes long.

On the other hand, in the sample container row, if the recognition position of the requested item is sufficiently close to the dispensing position, the recognition of the requested item will be delayed with respect to the preprocessing of the reaction container, and the measurement item will not be assigned, that is, the empty reaction A container appears.

In this way, in the conventional method, if the recognition position of the requested item is set sufficiently far from the dispensing position in the sample container row, the number of samples that can be exchanged will be reduced, and the time between starting the automatic analyzer and actually starting dispensing will decrease. , and if the recognition position of the requested item in the sample container row is set sufficiently close to the dispensing position, there is a problem that the efficiency of using the reaction containers decreases.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the conventional method and to provide a sample recognition and dispensing device that can satisfy both the number of exchangeable samples and the efficiency of using throughputs and reaction vessels.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention is based on the number of sample supporting members between the dispensing position and the requested item recognition position in the sample row, and the number of dispensing support members between the dispensing position and the preprocessing start position in the dispensing row. To make K and υ equal, it is an attempt to realize the purpose.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

The reaction table 1 has a plurality of reaction vessels 2 serving as measurement cells on its circumference, and can freely rotate around a rotation axis 3. The sample table 4 has a plurality of sample containers 5 on its circumference and can freely rotate around a rotation axis 6. A barcode label 61 is attached to the side of the sample container 5.

The barcode reader 62 is a barcode reading mechanism 6
3, and is moved up and down by the barcode reading mechanism 63, and the - code written on the barcode label 61 is read and sent to the control device. The sample suction and discharge tube 7 is connected to the dispensing mechanism, and the sample can be sucked and discharged by the suction and discharge operation of this dispensing mechanism. The reaction table 1 and the sample table 4 are rotated around the rotation axis 8 by
A sample suction/discharge tube cleaning mechanism 9 is installed under the rotating path of the sample suction/discharge tube 7. The sample is dispensed using the reagent discharge tube 10. Channel 11, channel 12, channel 13,
This is carried out by a reagent dispensing mechanism consisting of a flow path switching device 14 and a reagent dispensing device 15. The stirring rod 20 is connected to the stirring mechanism, rotates by the rotational action of the stirring mechanism, moves up and down by the up-and-down action, and moves back and forth between the reaction vessel 2 and the stirring cleaning mechanism 21 by the back-and-forth action. The spectrometer faces the light source lamp 31, and when the reaction table 1 rotates, the reaction container 2 emits a light beam 32.
It is set up so that the light absorption measurements are taken at that time. The reaction vessel cleaning suction/drainage pipe 40 is connected to the cleaning mechanism, moves up and down by the up and down movement of the cleaning mechanism, and sucks and drains liquid by the suction/drainage movement.

The operating principle of automatic analysis will be explained below according to the diagram. When a sample container 5 containing a sample to be measured, for example, serum, is supplied to a barcode reading position 64, a barcode reader 62 reads a barcode label 61 attached to the sample container. The read barcode is sent to the control device, which recognizes the item to be measured based on a pre-stored correspondence table between barcodes and measurement items. The sample container 5 is
Once supplied to the sampling position 50 through the transfer process,
According to the measurement items recognized by the control device using the barcode, the tip of the sample suction and discharge tube 7 is immersed in the sample container 5,
A certain amount of serum is aspirated and held in the sample suction/discharge tube 7. Thereafter, the sample intake/discharge tube 7 moves to the discharge position 51 of the reaction table 1 and discharges the held serum into the reaction container 2 which has been transferred to the discharge position 51. Since the reaction container 2 performs reaction measurement for one item, the above-mentioned dispensing operation is generally performed only for items other than the number of items from the sample container 5 which can hold a plurality of specified items. When the dispensing operation is completed, the reaction container 2 reaches the reagent dispensing position 52 through a transfer process. The reagent dispenser 15 can discharge the reagent in the reagent container 16 from the reagent discharge tube 10 into the reaction container 2 . Through the above operation, the sample to be measured is mixed with the reagent and a reaction is started. Thereafter, the reaction vessel 2 which has reached the stirring position 53 through the transfer process again,
The mixture is stirred by the stirring rod 20 to continue a smooth reaction. After stirring, the stirring rod 20 is washed with water by the stirring cleaning mechanism 21. Thereafter, the reaction container 2 reaches the cleaning position through a further transfer process. During this time, i.e.
During the transfer period from the reagent discharge position 52 to the washing position 54, each time the reaction container 2 passes the light beam 32, a light absorption measurement is performed by the spectrometer 30, and the control device recognizes it using a bar code. Wavelength selection is performed according to the measurement item.

Now, the reaction vessel 2 that has reached the washing position 54 is washed with water through washing positions 55, 56, and 57, and is used as the reaction vessel 2 again from the discharge position 50 through the subsequent transfer process. All of the above operations are controlled by the control device.

From the above explanation of the operation, the reaction container 2 is periodically washed with water, but as it is a sample to be measured, it gradually becomes contaminated with lipids in the sample, making it impossible to perform accurate measurements. As a solution, we have already
Although there is a patent XXXX, the following process was established to prevent this dirt from directly adversely affecting the measurement data.

At each of the cleaning positions 54, 55, and 56, the reaction vessel 2 is cleaned through two steps: sucking out residual liquid and discharging distilled water. The reaction vessel 2 filled with distilled water at the cleaning position 56 once passes through the light beam 32, and the light absorption of the distilled water is measured. This light absorption value is the light absorption value due to dirt on the reaction container 2, etc.

The distilled water in the reaction vessel 2 is then sucked out at the washing position 57. Next, the reaction container 2 is transferred to the discharge position 51, a sample to be measured is dispensed by the dispensing mechanism, and the reaction process is then measured by a spectrometer. If the optical absorption measurement value of the distilled water is subtracted from this reaction process measurement data,
Light absorption due to dirt in the reaction container is canceled out, and data original to the sample to be measured is obtained.

To carry out the above process, the item to be measured must be recognized before the sample to be measured is dispensed into the reaction container 2, and therefore the barcode must be read in advance.

FIG. 2 shows a timing chart of the above process.

Centered on the time axis 101, the sample container position coordinates 102 are shown above.
, and below are reaction vessel number coordinates 103. The sampling position and the barcode reading υ position are scaled on the sample container position coordinate 102, and the sample container position number on the circumference of the sample table is written on the right side. In this timing sequence, the barcode is read from the first sample container on the sample table, sent to the sampling position, and dispensed. Also, the first sample has 1 item, the second sample has 1 item, the third sample has 2 items, the fourth sample has 4 items, the fifth sample has 1 item,
It is assumed that the sixth sample has one item, the seventh sample has one item, the eighth sample has one item, and the ninth sample has one item. The circled number 106 means that at this point the bar code of the sample container with the corresponding number has been read and the control device has recognized the item to be measured. Reaction container numbers are written on the reaction container number coordinates 103, and the reaction containers are transferred to the sample discharge in the order of this number. Reaction container number coordinate 1
To the right of 03, a solid line 104 shows the dispensing pretreatment and a dotted line 105 shows the reaction process. The numbers on the solid line 104 are sample container position numbers, indicating that the sample container with the corresponding number was dispensed into the reaction container. In this example, it is necessary to know the measurement items before the three steps of dispensing and use them for preprocessing, so in line with this, barcode reading positions are set in front of the three sample container molecules at the sampling position. are doing. Second
The figure shows the sampling position It from the barcode reading position.
Since the transfer process and the pretreatment process of the reaction vessels are synchronized, the barcodes and the items to be measured in the future are recognized in all reaction vessels before starting the pretreatment.

Figure 3 is a timing chart when the barcode reading position and sampling position are separated by one sample container compared to Figure 2! It is 4J. This timing example is an example in which all samples have only one item requested. The process of transferring the sample container from the barcode reading position to the sampling position takes less time than the pretreatment process of the reaction container, so there is a one-step dispensing wait until the reaction container arrives at the dispensing position110°111.112,113 This causes a delay in barcode reading. For this reason, the reaction vessels 114, 115 and 116 appear empty because the items to be measured cannot be recognized in advance. As a result, no dispensing is performed at 117, for example.

In FIG. 3, the usage efficiency of the reaction vessel is inferior to that in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a timing chart when the distance between the barcode reading position and the sampling position is widened by one sample container compared to FIG. 2. In this timing example, the first sample has 1 item, the second sample has 1 item, the third sample has 2 items, the fourth sample has 4 items, the fifth sample has 1 item, It is assumed that the sixth sample has one item, the seventh sample has one item, the eighth sample has one item, and the ninth sample has one item. In this example, the process of transferring the sample container from the barcode reading position to the sampling position takes longer than the pretreatment process of the reaction container, so the measurement items can be recognized well in advance and the reaction container cannot be left empty.
．． However, since it takes a long time to transport the sample container from the barcode reading position to the sampling position, it takes time until dispensing starts. Furthermore, the sample located between the barcode reading position and the template position cannot be exchanged because it has already undergone corresponding pretreatment in some reaction vessels. Therefore, the number of sample containers on the sample table whose exchange is prohibited increases.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the usage efficiency of reaction vessels is maximized, the time from reading the barcode to dispensing is minimized, and the number of sample vessels that can be exchanged on the sample table is It has the effect of maximizing the

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the step of transferring the sample support member from the measurement item recognition position corresponding to the barcode reading position 9 to the dispensing position and the step of transporting the sample support member to be dispensed corresponding to the reaction container. Since the processing steps are synchronized, items to be measured in the future are assigned to all reaction vessels, and the reaction vessel usage efficiency is 100%. Furthermore, the waiting time from when the automatic analyzer is activated until actual dispensing is minimized, and the number of exchangeable sample containers in the sample queue is maximized.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing the operation order of FIG. 1, and FIG.
Figure 4 is a timing chart showing that when the barcode reading position and sampling position are separated by one sample container compared to Figure 2, the reaction vessel usage efficiency is inferior to Figure 2. When the distance between the barcode reading position 9 and the sampling position is expanded by one sample container compared to Fig. 2, it takes longer to start dispensing compared to Fig. 2, and changing the sample table is prohibited. FIG. 3 is a timing chart diagram showing an increase in the number of sample containers. l...Reaction table, 2...Reaction container, 4...Sample table, 5...Sample container, 7...Sample suction and exhaust pipe,
50...Sampling position, 51...Discharge position, 6
1... Barcode label, 62... Barcode reader, 64... Barcode reading position.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sample array consisting of a plurality of sample support members, recognition means for recognizing items to be measured on the sample, a recognition medium fixed to each sample support member, and a plurality of dispensing units. A dispensing apparatus comprising: a dispensing column consisting of a support member for a sample to be dispensed; and a dispensing mechanism dispensing a sample from the sample column to the dispensing column; and the position where the recognition medium is recognized. A sample recognition and dispensing device characterized in that the number of supporting members between the position and the position where processing is started is made equal. 2. In claim 1, the number of sample supporting members located between the dispensing position in the sample row and the position for recognizing the recognition medium, and the number of sample supporting members located between the dispensing position in the sample row and the position at which the recognition medium is recognized; When comparing the number of support members between the position where pretreatment is started for the support member for the sample to be dispensed in the future before the sample is dispensed in the future, the number of the former is larger than the number of the latter. Sample recognition and dispensing device.