FI57665C - KUVETTENHET - Google Patents

Description

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IBJ (11) UTLÄCGNINGSSKRIFT 5 7665 ^ (51) Ky.lk.3 / lnt.ci.3 G 01 N 21/03

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Patent · och registerstyrelaan Araökan utlagd och uti.tkriftan public «r * d 30.05.80 (32) (33) (31) Pyydetty · βιοΙΙ« κι * —Begird prlorltet (71) (72) Osmo Antero Suovaniemi, Armas Lindgrenintie 15 A , 00570 Helsinki 57,

FIELD OF THE INVENTION the apparatus includes cuvette assemblies that can be fitted to a cuvette holder and that the inventive location of the fixed or detachable cuvettes is the same as that of the detectors and corresponding light sources in the measuring device. through the bottom of the limiting cuvette, light is conducted in the reading device to travel in the direction of the longitudinal axis of each cuvette from a light source on the other side of the cuvette; in the detector on the other side.

In laboratories, when looking for pathogens or determining the levels of various substances in the body, it is often necessary to perform studies of numerous reactions. These studies deal with crops and even thousands of test tubes that have undergone, for example, dilution series or chemical color reactions.

2 57665

In virology, diagnosis can be achieved by isolating the virus itself or its components and visualizing them under an electron microscope. In addition, diagnosis is often made by showing an increase in the antibody titer of the virus in the blood or by detecting viral antigens in the cells.

In the basic methods of virology, when determining which pathogens are present in a patient's sample, the dilution or titration of the samples is central to many methods. Research methods often use reactions whose results can be read visually from dilution series. Such reactions include e.g. haemagglutination, complement binding and inhibition of haemagglutination.

It is often the case that each sample has to be diluted several times in succession and, in addition, control titrations often have to be performed to improve the reliability of the test results. In this case, up to several thousand test tubes are processed and the results are read visually. Printing is mainly manual with current methods. Reading and printing results like this is naturally slow and there is a lot of room for error.

In bacteriology, diagnosis is sought in many respects, as in virology.

Several bacteriological test methods use dilution series and the results are read visually. More common methods of this type are e.g. determination of anti-streptolysin titer (AST) of streptococcal bacterium based on hemolysis reaction and titration of staphylococcal bacterium (ASTA). The Widal experiment is used to determine, by a reaction based on bacterial agglutination, what Salmonella, or typhoid type, could be in the sample.

In hematology, blood grouping often involves dealing with large numbers of test tubes, especially when there are multiple specimens, and the results are read visually.

Numerous measurements with a spectrophotometer are performed daily in the laboratories. Few commercially available devices of this type have automation; measurements and printing are manual. Some devices can automatically measure and print, for example, one hundred samples. In these available spectrophotometers, the light is conducted to pass perpendicularly through the walls of the cuvette, whereby the light cannot, for example, reach the precipitate at the bottom of the cuvette.

3 57665 In the apparatus of the present invention, light is conducted in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the cuvette to pass through the liquid column in the cuvette and the cuvette bounding it or in the opposite direction. In this case, if the volume of liquid in the cuvette is changed, at the same time the distance of light passing through the liquid changes, whereby the permeability of the liquid column, i.e. the transmit dance, also changes. As the light travels along the longitudinal axis of the cuvette, precipitations, turbidities, etc. of the results of serological, bacteriological or hematological reactions can be measured from the cuvette based on a certain change in light intensity. Such precipitates or turbidities at the bottom of the cuvette cannot be measured with available spectrophotometers. For example, in haemolysis reactions, haemolysis causes the entire reaction mixture to become brighter, which in turn increases the light transmittance in the liquid. Here again, a certain degree of hemolysis or outcome point can be determined from a certain amount of change in light intensity.

In commercially available individual cuvettes, where the measurement is performed horizontally through the walls of the cuvettes, the walls of the cuvettes are easily scratched and soiled when touched with the fingers, which can lead to large errors in the measurements. Furthermore, in currently marketed devices in which light travels horizontally, insufficient attention has been paid to the alignment of the cuvettes and often this fact has been completely ignored or confirmed.

The features of the invention will become apparent from the features of the claims.

The invention will become more apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 shows a side view of a cuvette arranged in a cuvette holder at a measuring station, FIG. 2 shows a top view of a cuvette arranged on a cuvette holder, FIG. 3 is a side view of the cuvette, FIG. 4 is a side view of the cuvette cover plate, FIG. 5 shows a top view of the cuvette, FIG. 6 is a side view and sectional view of a single cuvette, and FIG. 7 shows the alignment of the cuvette and associated cuvettes for measurement.

The bases of the cuvette 2 in the plate 3 have several cuvettes 4 at certain intervals. These act as cuvettes for measuring the absorbance of the solution in the cuvette 4, the change in light intensity caused by the precipitate at the bottom of the cuvette 4 or by turbidity. In the vertical measurement principle, light passes through the bottom of the cuvette 4 and the light intensity 4 57665 is recorded by a detector 5 · above the cuvette.

Each cuvette 4 of the cuvette 2 can be closed simultaneously by the cover plate 6 during storage or shaking of the cuvette 2. The cuvettes 4 of the cuvette system 2 are designed in such a way that the principle of vertical measurement can be implemented in them.

The measuring window 7 of the cuvettes 4 of the cuvette 2 is surrounded on the outside by a cylindrical part or edge 8 which protects the measuring window 7 from soiling and scratching, whereby the measuring windows 7 of the cuvettes 4 of the cuvette 2 remain of optically high quality. If the bottom 7 of the cuvettes 4 of the cuvette 2 is planar, the bottom of the cuvette is easy to manufacture, and no optical defects or lens effect on the passage of light occur.

Preferably, the lower part of the cuvettes 4 of the cuvette 2 is conical, whereby the cuvettes of the cuvette are easy to align (see Fig. 7), and the particles precipitated from the liquid layers at the top of the cuvettes are placed at the bottom of the cone 9. This makes it easy to contaminate or measure fines from a small area.

The vertical inner wall of the cuvette 4 may have one or more flags 10 in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the cuvette, which promote the mixing of the liquid in the cuvette 4 as the cuvette is moved. When shaking in circular cuvettes with eccentric mixers, the liquid columns are rotated, causing the liquid columns to rise along the cuvette wall. In this case, the different liquid layers mix poorly. But if there are flags 10 in the wall, as described above, these flags 10 create vortices in the rotating liquid column, whereby the different liquid layers mix efficiently even with a small force.

It is also important that the cuvette 2 can be placed in only one position on the cuvette holder 1. The cuvette holder 1 has a protrusion 11 which fits into a slot 12 or opening in the support plate 3 of the cuvette 2. The support plate 3 of the cuvette 2 also has a code 13 the cuvette 2 in question and at the same time each sample in the cuvette 4 of the cuvette 2 is identified. This has the advantage of e.g. the fact that only one code 13 can identify nine separate samples and avoid coding each sample.

When the cuvettes 2 can be placed in only one position on the cuvette holder 1, where the cuvettes 4 of the cuvettes 2 are measured in the measuring device, the first cuvettes 2 can reset the nine channels of the measuring device and in subsequent cuvettes the corresponding cuvettes are measured. This has the advantage that if, during the manufacturing step of the cuvettes 2, the optical measurement errors 7 appear in the cuvette measuring window 7 and the errors are repeated in each cuvette, the inaccuracies are eliminated in the zeroing step and in the subsequent measuring step.

The cuvette holder 1 is designed so that one or more cuvettes 2 can be placed in it and it can be pushed through the measuring head of the measuring device (see Fig. 1).

The cuvette holder 1 acts as a holder for the cuvettes 2, e.g. for storing, transferring, transferring liquids to or from the cuvettes, incubating and measuring reactions.

The cuvette holder 1 can also be thermostated, whereby the desired temperature is obtained in the cuvettes 4 of the cuvettes 2 and in the liquids therein.

When the cuvette 2 is in the cuvette holder 1 at the measuring end of the measuring device at the measuring point, each cuvette in the cuvette is protected from external light and in addition the cuvette holder provides light protection for each cuvette in the cuvette.

When the cuvette 2 in the cuvette holder 1 at the measuring head of the measuring device enters the measuring point, the light beam can pass through the opening 14 in the cuvette holder 1 and this light beam between 15,15 gives a pulse to the probe part 16 via the detector 15 or light.

This cursor portion 16 aligns each cuvette 4 of the cuvette 2 simultaneously with the optical fibers and detectors 5 corresponding to the cuvettes 4. When the cursor part 16 has risen to the upper position, the conical lower part 9 of each cuvette 4 of the cuvette 2 has settled in the conical part of the cursor device and further the cuvette 2 has risen upwards at the probe, the top of the cuvette 2 supporting the probe. In this position the measurement takes place. In this case, the cuvettes 4 of the cuvette system 2 are very precisely aligned. After a certain time, the probe cursor device 16 lowers and allows the cuvette 2 to lower back to the rest position in the cuvette holder 1, whereby the cuvette holder can be pushed forward at the probe either mechanically or manually. When the next cuvette 2 enters the measuring point, the probe portion 16 of the probe aligns and locks the next cuvette in the measuring position.