FI65676C - METHODS OLAEGGNING FOER ANALYZER - Google Patents

Description

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METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ANALYSIS METHOD OCH ANLÄGGNING FÖR ANALYSER

The invention relates to a method for verifying the performance of analyzes, in particular blood grouping or other agglutination-based assays or analyzes. The invention enables reliable observational recording and reproducibility of the results and thus subsequent reproducible reliable analysis and reliable review of the results. The invention further relates to an apparatus for use in the method.

Diagnoses of the condition of patients, as well as the medication and other methods of treatment used to treat the sick, are often based on the results of laboratory tests.

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For example, it is important to check blood types before a blood transfusion. Donor red blood cells are tested for recipient serum. Live red blood cells are used to help determine blood groups and find suitable blood for transfusion. If the erythrocytes mix with the serum evenly, a blood transfusion can be initiated. If the cells precipitate, as the antigens on the surface of the red blood cells bind to the antibody and thus cause the agglutination of the red blood cells, blood transfusion cannot be performed. This precipitation determination can be performed in different ways depending on the laboratory. For example, in small laboratories, the assay is often performed manually and printing is performed visually: the behavior of a sample placed in a test tube, glass plate, or similar vessel is examined. The results are read and recorded. In large blood banks and hospital laboratories, the number of assays is so abundant that the assays require a machine to analyze the clear results. Photometry-based devices, such as the Technicon blood-grouping device (Group-a-mat), are often used. Also used e.g. Flame photometers equipped with microprocessor technology, in which ion-selective electrodes may be the functional unit. The devices 35 used may also be based on densitometry, for example a turbodensitometer.

However, interpreting all laboratory results is not always easy. For example, agglutination as a biological reaction is not always readily interpretable: the reaction may be very weak or red blood cells may cluster into agglutination-like monetary formation. Therefore, in at least some cases, an assay detected by the human eye will always be required.

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The transport of samples for analysis is often not easy and the sending of blood samples is always problematic, as some antibodies and antigens are very poorly preserved and therefore not all of the blood properties can be as well displayed in the study site as in the patient's hospital. the research laboratory would therefore have more expertise and tools for in-depth research.

Laboratories may also experience 15 misinterpretations due to urgency, fatigue, etc. Of the samples to be analyzed, only numerical or equivalent results are usually left, and in general it is usually impossible to say what the sample was based on, on the basis of which the results were obtained and on the basis of which the treatment measures were prescribed.

20 Based on erroneous laboratory results or misinterpretations of laboratory results, the patient may receive incorrect treatment, for example, incorrect blood transfusions of varying degrees of complication may be performed.

The method for improving the reliability of laboratory samples according to the invention is characterized by the features set forth in the characterizing part of claim 1. The apparatus used in the method is characterized by the features set forth in the characterizing part of claim 2.

50 The invention will now be described in more detail by means of examples, which are not intended to limit the invention but only to clarify it.

The method according to the invention utilizes a videotape or film technique or a similar other image recording method, by means of which it is possible to obtain the results in a visual form and which allows the results thus obtained to be preserved, reproduced and subsequently reliably viewed.

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In addition to the normal equipment used in the analyzes, the apparatus includes the equipment needed to record and record the result of the analysis and to compare the images, video tapes, films or the like thus obtained with the results obtained by conventional techniques.

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Dispense, manually or automatically, the required amount of test sample, e.g., a blood sample, into a cuvette, test tube, glass plate, well plate, ring plate 1, or a combination thereof, as well as dispense reagents 10 and controls, and perform any other necessary analysis. When the time required for the experiment under the experimental conditions, for example the time required for agglutination of the blood sample, has elapsed, the imaging unit included in the apparatus captures the sample prepared in the analysis space and stores the analysis result. The device then performs an interpretation of the result of the image recording and repeats the recorded analysis event, for example agglutination, in the image for display on a monitor or similar detection device, which allows the person supervising the device to deduce the result from the image. If agglutination is detected in the image, press the plus print button or the like, 20 if no agglutination is displayed, press the minus button, if the result shows money formation, press the corresponding signal or signal button, and if the result is vague, press the result obtained into the apparatus, the input of the result 25 causes the machine to repeat its own analysis result, which also appears in the image of the apparatus.

If both test results are consistent, the result can be considered correct. If the results differ, the experiment is repeated and the old and 30 new results are presented on videotape or similar to the person who finally decides and is responsible.

The result recorded on the videotape or the like, e.g., an agglutination event, allows the result obtained both mechanically and visually to be displayed in the image.

The printing of the machine can be based, for example, on densitometry of an image tape or the like given by an image, or on electrical or electromagnetic measurement.

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The method according to the invention has been used in the example described above as a method of analysis, printing and storage.

The method and the equipment used in the method can also serve as a simple printing and storage method and apparatus. The result analyzed by the machine on the sample can be based on, for example, photometric, electrophoretic, spectrophotometric or densitometric measurements. In this case, the sample prepared in the analysis space is imaged on a videotape or the like, and the apparatus according to the invention automatically prints on each image recording 10 the corresponding analysis result obtained from the sample. In the future, the machine-obtained analysis results corresponding to the image recording can be viewed on a monitor, and a result based on visual observation can be added to the recording, as previously explained. The recordings can be processed as described above.

Thus, the method and apparatus according to the invention record an analysis event, for example by means of agglutination, a video recorder or the like. Thus, the invention enables, for example, analysis based on visual observation to be performed mechanically using various automated interpretation techniques, which techniques are based on, for example, densitometry of image darkness degrees or interpretation based on visible composition and image shape of agglutination. The required number of different versions of such events, e.g. agglutination, as well as normal and borderline cases can be entered into the device memory in advance. The machine can then use its memory to select the closest corresponding analysis result based on what it describes. In cases of doubt, the method of the invention may utilize an individual interpretation of a recorder or similar image. The possibility of capturing an image also means that unclear cases can be clarified in more detail at a central location, because depending on the sample that may be sent, an image of the initial situation can also be sent. Thus, it can also be seen whether changes have occurred in the sample during transport or changes caused by transport damage to the sample can be ruled out, and thus the method and apparatus of the invention can improve the current situation such that some peripheral results may be permanently unclear. an error of interpretation or due, for example, to the reaction caused by transport to 5 65676 samples. The method still has the substantial improvement over the prior art that since the prepared analytical sample has been described, it can be examined and interpreted later, which excludes e.g. misinterpretations due to machine failure or temporary malfunction at the time of analy-5 sound.

The video tapes or the like obtained by the method and apparatus according to the invention can either be stored as is or can be suitably "snippets", copied, enlarged and, for example, in cases of doubt, forwarded, for example by means of image transmission equipment.

In this case, for example, laboratories or the like can send the serological analysis images to a suitable center where the competent serologist can examine the results and then prescribe the necessary measures or possibly new tests.

Recording a clear picture will also help clarify the complications sometimes caused by a blood transfusion.

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The image also remains as legal evidence if necessary.

With the generalization of video technology and other imaging technology, the construction of the devices used in the invention becomes relatively advantageous, which enables even smaller laboratories to use the analysis, result and recording method or the print-storage method according to the invention.

The method according to the invention can also be used for other analyzes that can be described, for example for electrophoretic assays.

The invention is well suited for many serological, virological, microbiological and tissue tests, for example syphilis / VDRL tests.

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The invention may be varied and modified within the scope of the claims.

Claims (6)

A method intended to improve the reliability of assays, characterized in that the sample prepared for the analysis stage is imaged and recorded on videotape or the like and the banding is analyzed mechanically and rendered as an image visible in the monitor or the like to be analyzed mechanically or For the analysis stage the sample prepared is first analyzed mechanically, such as photometric, spectrophotometric, densitometric or electrophoretic, and imaged and recorded on videotapes or the like, whereupon the apparatus automatically outputs on each videotape the corresponding analytical result and in addition, the videotape is rendered as an image visible in the monit wherein the result of the tape or sample mechanical analysis is repeated and becomes visible only when the result (e.g. +, - or indefinite) of the visual analysis of the image is entered into the machine. 2. Device intended to improve the reliability of assays, characterized therein, including apparatus for imaging and recording on videotape or similar samples prepared for analysis condition, apparatus for mechanical analysis of the sample and for reproducing the sample visually in a monitor or similar for visual analysis; or apparatus, for the first mechanical analysis of samples prepared for analysis condition, such as photometric, spectrophotometric, densitometric or electrophoretic, and apparatus for imaging and recording samples on videotape or equivalent and apparatus for automatically dispensing the corresponding assay results on each