ITFI940171A1 - AUTOMATIC EQUIPMENT FOR IMMUNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS - Google Patents

Abstract

The immunological analysis apparatus comprises a first support (3) for a plurality of biological liquid samples to be analyzed; a second support (5) for a plurality of bottles containing reagents; a third support (13) for micro plates (26) with cavity (26A) within which the biological liquid to be analyzed and the reagent are dispensed; a dispensing arm (7.10, 7.11) with dispensing means (9, 11, 25) which selectively take the biological liquid samples and dispense them into the cavities (26A). The third support (13) for the plates (26) comprises a rotating table (13) with a substantially vertical rotation axis (A), with a plurality of stations (13A) for corresponding plates (26); washing means (15Z, 16A, 16B) are associated with the rotating table (13) for washing the cavities (26A) of the plates (26), which are controlled according to a polar coordinate system (Fig. 1).

Description

AUTOMATIC EQUIPMENT FOR IMMUNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

DESCRIPTION

Technical field

The invention relates to an apparatus for carrying out immunological analyzes on biological liquids, such as sera, plasmas, urine or others, or similar analyzes.

State of the art

Immunological analyzes involve the use of plates, or microplates, with a plurality of cavities or wells to whose walls a substance containing the specific antibody of the test has been adhered. A quantity of biological liquid to be analyzed (for example blood plasma) is dispensed into a cavity. With the addition of an appropriate reagent, the enzymatic reaction takes place, in particular an antibody-antigen reaction. The antibodies arranged on the cavity walls react with any antigens present in the sample and give rise to antigen-antibody complexes, which remain adherent to the cavity wall.

Before reading the result of the enzymatic reaction, the individual cavities of each plate are washed, to eliminate the liquids contained therein, leaving intact the film, containing the antigen-antibody complexes, adhering to the inner wall of each cavity. After washing, the plate is read by a suitable reading unit which provides the result of the analysis.

An apparatus of this type is known from EP-A-0 500 506, comprising a first support for a plurality of biological liquid samples to be analyzed; a second support for one or more reactants; a third support for plates having cavities into which the biological liquid to be analyzed and the reagent are dispensed; a dispensing arm carrying dispensing means which selectively take said samples of biological liquid and said reagent (s) and dispense them into said cavities; and washing means for washing said cavities. The dispensing arm is movable along two orthogonal and horizontal axes and carries both the washing means and the dispensing means. The plates are installed on a fixed support and after dispensing the samples and reagents and after the necessary incubation time, possibly with thermostating and shaking, they are manually extracted and inserted in a separate reading unit.

This known type of apparatus is extremely versatile and compact, but has a limitation in the fact that it does not have a built-in reading unit. Furthermore, the integration of all the dispensing and washing devices on a single arm entails the advantage of greater compactness, but has the drawback of increasing the working time, since the operations of sampling and dispensing of samples and reagents cannot occur at the same time as the washing operations.

A similar apparatus is described in EP-A-0 210 014. Here the plates are carried on a table which translates to move the plates themselves with respect to the dispensing and washing means.

An immunoassay apparatus is known from WO-A-8 706008, in which the reading unit is also incorporated. The apparatus provides a movable arm along a vertical axis and a horizontal axis, perpendicular to each other. The plates are carried by a support equipped with a translation movement according to a third axis, orthogonal to the translation axes of the arm. The arm can be equipped alternatively with means for dispensing samples and reagents, with washing means and with an optical reading head. The same equipment moving along two orthogonal axes has the task of carrying out all the dispensing, washing and reading operations, with extremely long times and consequent low productivity.

From WO-A-8 602 168 an apparatus for immunoenzymatic analyzes or the like is known, in which a single table movable along a horizontal axis is provided, and above said table there is a group that presents the dispensing and washing. The unit is mobile along a single vertical axis. Both the samples and the reagents are arranged on the table, as well as a single plate with the wells or cavities in which the preparation containing the antibodies is present. The table brings the samples, the reagents and the plate with the cavities alternately below the vertically movable group. After dispensing the samples and reagents, incubating and washing, the plate is brought from the translating table to a reading unit. This equipment has the drawback of being able to treat a single plate at a time. An enlargement of the table and an increase in the number of plates would not be possible, as said plates are in any case all moved simultaneously by a single table, which also carries the reagents and samples, so a reduction in analysis times would not in any case be possible.

The subject of the present invention is an apparatus for immunological analyzes and the like, which is capable of carrying out, automatically and at high speed, a large number of analyzes and which is at the same time particularly versatile and capable of carrying out different analyzes on samples. different, that is, coming from several subjects.

Description of the invention

These and other objects and advantages, which will become clear to those skilled in the art from reading the following text, are obtained by providing that the support on which the plates are arranged comprises a rotating table with a substantially vertical axis of rotation, on which a plurality of seats for corresponding plates. The rotary table moves the individual plates from one to the other by a plurality of positions. Furthermore, the invention provides that washing means are associated to said rotating table for washing the cavities of said plates, which are controlled according to a system of polar coordinates with axis coinciding with the rotation axis of said rotating table.

In this way, while one of the plates arranged on the rotating table is in a position in which the samples and any reagents are dispensed through the dispensing arm, any other of the plates arranged on the rotating table is in a position in which it can washing of the cavities of said second plate is carried out. The polar coordinates along which the washing means move make it possible to select the cavities to be washed, for example as a function of the required incubation time and the sequence in which the samples and any reagents were dispensed.

The use of the rotating table with the washing means controlled along polar coordinates independent from the control ones of the dispensing arm allows a high working flexibility and also allows to release the dispensing operations of samples and reagents from the incubation and washing, with evident reduction of analysis times, as the dispensing operations can take place overlapping the washing operations.

The use of a rotating table with autonomously controlled washing means along polar coordinates is particularly advantageous in the construction of an integrated apparatus, which also reads the results of the enzymatic reaction. In fact, one of the stopping positions of the rotating table can be in correspondence with a reading station. Since it is advisable to associate thermostating and vibration means to each seat of the rotating table, it is advisable that the reading of the reaction results does not take place with the plate in position on the rotating table. Therefore, according to a particularly advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the reading unit is placed side by side with the rotating table and transfer means are provided, which selectively transfer the plates from said rotating table to said reading unit and vice versa.

Advantageously, the washing means associated with the rotating table are carried by a carriage movable along a radial arm provided with a rotary movement around the axis of rotation of said rotating table and extending in a radial direction above said rotating table. In this way the rotation along the angular coordinate of the washing means is independent and released from the rotation of the rotating table, obtaining greater versatility.

Each plate can be installed on a trolley which is inserted into the respective seat of the rotating table by means of a guide system. This guide system is made in such a way as to be able to interface with corresponding guides of the reading unit. The transfer of each plate from the rotating table to the reading unit and vice versa is thus facilitated, and for this purpose a transfer slide can be provided which picks up the plate from the rotary table and transfers it to the reading unit and vice versa. The transfer slide can have an elastic hooking tooth for hooking the trolley carrying the plate to be transferred, an unlocking means, for example with a cam or an eccentric, which can be provided to release the trolley from the transfer slide.

In order to increase the capacity of the machine and to allow long incubation times without reducing productivity, a particular embodiment of the apparatus can have, associated with the rotating table, an intermediate magazine, in which the plates into which the biological liquid samples to be analyzed have been dispensed, transfer means being provided for transferring individual plates from said rotating table to said magazine and vice versa. The magazine can have a vertically movable parking unit, equipped with a plurality of housings for said plates, each housing being able to be selectively brought into alignment with said rotating table to transfer a respective plate from said rotating table to said housing or vice versa. The means for transferring the plates from the rotating table to the parking unit and vice versa can be similar to the means used to transfer the plates to the reading unit.

Preferably, the dispensing arm is equipped, in a per se known manner (for example from the aforementioned EP-A-0 500 506), with a dispensing equipment movable along two orthogonal horizontal axes, with at least one vertically movable dispensing needle along a third axis perpendicular to said two horizontal axes. Preferably there are two dispensing needles and advantageously with variable distance between centers in order to simultaneously take two samples from two test tubes arranged at a certain distance and dispense said samples into two cavities arranged at different intervals.

Further advantageous characteristics of the apparatus according to the invention are indicated in the attached dependent claims.

Brief description of the drawings

The invention will be better understood by following the description and the attached drawing, which shows a practical non-limiting embodiment of the invention. In the drawing the la

Fig. 1 shows a simplified plan view of an apparatus according to the invention; the

Figs.2, 3, A, 6 and 7 are lateral views sectioned according to vertical planes of line II-II, III-III, IV-IV, VI-VI and VII-VII respectively of Fig.1; Fig.5 is a perspective view of a reaction plate; 1a

Fig.8 is a plan view according to a horizontal plane of trace VIII-VIII of Fig.7; there

Fig.9 is a side view of Fig.7 according to IX-IX of Fig.7; there

Fig.10 is an enlarged plan view of the intermediate magazine; there

Fig. 11 is a section according to XI-XI of Fig. 10; Fig.12 is an enlarged plan view of the reading unit; and the

Fig. 13 is a section according to XIII-XIII of Fig. 12. Detailed description of the intended embodiment The equipment comprises a rectangular base plate 1 (Fig. 1) on which the following equipment is mounted, which will be described in more detail below:

- a first sample holder 3, in which the test tubes containing the biological liquids to be examined are placed;

- a second reagent holder 5, located adjacent to said first support;

- a dispensing system for biological liquids and reagents, comprising a translation mechanism 7 for moving a pair of slides 9, 11 with movements deriving from the compositions of displacements along two orthogonal axes x-x, y-y, said slides each carrying a vertical needle for the dispensing of liquids; - a circular table 13 rotating along its own vertical axis and comprising four stations 13A each carrying a seat for a respective reaction plate 26, said plates being provided with cavities in which the biological liquids are touched to react with the reagents;

- a rotating arm 15 carrying members for washing the cavities of said plates;

- an intermediate magazine 17 for said plates 26, to allow the time necessary for the development of the reactions in the cavities of the same to pass;

- a reading unit 19 suitable for detecting the result of the reaction which took place in each said cavity.

Sample holder 3.

The support has the shape of a circular tray equipped with housings 3.1, each suitable for containing in a vertical position a collection tube for a biological liquid; said housings are uniformly distributed on said support in concentric circular arrangements with the tray itself.

Said support 3 is supported by the base plate I by means of bearings not shown in the drawing, which allow it to rotate around a vertical axis w-w, and is positioned in the desired angular position by means of an electric stepping motor 3.2 and of a transmission with pulleys comprising a first and a second toothed belt 3.3, 3.4.

Reagent holder 5.

The reagent support 5 appears as a mostly rectangular plan tray with a hollow corner to be placed side by side with the biological liquid support 3 in order to make better use of the available space. The reagent support has a series of housings 5.1 adapted to contain, in a slightly inclined position with respect to the vertical, the bottles 21 (Fig.3) of the reagents; said housings are regularly distributed in plan in the support 5 in rows parallel to the sides of the support itself. The support can optionally be thermostated and maintained at a constant and electronically controlled temperature.

The dispensing system for biological liquids and reagents.

The translation mechanism of the dispensing system comprises a first trolley 7.1 (Figs. 1 and 2) sliding along two parallel guides 7.2, 7.3, defining a horizontal axis x-x and constrained at their ends to the base plate 1 by means of supports 7. ^, 7.5. The carriage 7.1 is moved along said guides by a step-by-step electric motor 7.6, mounted on the support 7. ^ ", by means of a driving pulley 7.7, a toothed belt 7.8 and a driven pulley 7.9 rotatably mounted on the support 7.5, the belt toothed 7.8 being fixed at one point to a bracket 7.9 integral with the trolley 7.1.

A cylindrical guide 7.10 (Fig. 4) and a prismatic guide 7.11 are cantilevered to the trolley 7.1, which form a dispensing arm and define a horizontal y-y axis orthogonal to the x-x axis and along which the two slides can slide 9, li. Each slide 9 is constrained to said guides 7.10, 7.11 respectively with a sliding bush 7.12 and with a pair of idle rollers 7.13 (Fig.A), and is moved along said guides by its own electric step-by-step motor 9.1 , 11.1 respectively, integral with the first carriage 7.1, by means of a driving pulley 9.2, 11.2, a toothed belt 9.3, 11.3 and a driven pulley 9.4, 11.4 (Figs. 2 and 4), said driven pulleys being idle supported by a bracket 9.5 integral with the ends of said guides 7.10, 7.11 opposite to said first carriage 7.1 and each of said belts 9.3 11.3 being fixed at a point to the respective slide 9, 11 with a bracket like that indicated with 9.6 in Fig. 4 to drag the slide when the relative motor 9.1, 11.1 is set in rotation.

Each slide 9, 11 carries a vertical plate 23, 25 with a dispensing needle; since said plates are similarly shaped, for the sake of brevity the description refers only to plate 25 (Figs. 3 and 4). On the plate 25, by means of blocks 25.1, 25.2 a vertical rectilinear guide 25.3 is fixed on which a carriage 25.4 can slide to which a hollow needle 25.5 projecting downwards is fixed. Said carriage 25.4 can therefore slide parallel to a vertical axis z-z and has a flat surface in proximity to the face shown in Fig. 3 of said plate 25, so that rotation of the carriage itself around a vertical axis is prevented. The carriage 25.4 is moved along said guide by an electric step-by-step motor 25.6 which, by means of a driving pulley 25.7 and a driven pulley 25.8, drives a toothed belt 25.9 which is fixed with a plate 25.10 to the carriage 25.4.

When the carriage 25.4 is completely lowered, as shown in the left part of Fig. 3, the needle 25.5 integral with it protrudes for the most part below the plate 25 and can be inserted into a reagent bottle 21 or in one of the test tubes containing biological liquid until it touches the bottom. The inclined position of the 21 bottles allows you to aspirate most of the liquid contained therein. The upper part of the needle is connected with a tube 25.11 to a pump not shown in the drawing, said pump being bidirectional for sucking or expelling liquid through said needle.

When the needle carriage is completely raised, the free tip of the dispensing needle remains completely above the lower thread of the plate 25, as shown for the plate 23 in the right part of Fig. 3, and in this position the needle can be moved in plan, by means of a combination of movements along the x-x and y-y axes obtained respectively with programmed rotations of the motors 7.6, 9.1 of the translation system described, to take a metered quantity of a biological liquid from any test tube 3.1 of the first support 3 or of a reagent from any bottle 5.1 of the second support 5, or to deliver a metered quantity to a cavity 26A of a reaction plate 26 in a loading station on the rotating table 13, as will be described below.

In a known way, a hole 25.12 (Fig.A) of the block 25.1 located in the lower part of the plate 25 is crossed by the needle 25.5 during its lifting and lowering movement, said hole being connected with a tube 25.13 (Fig.3) of supply of washing water and with a 25.14 suction tube for washing water. This arrangement allows the external part of the needle 25.5 to be washed during its lifting and lowering so as not to contaminate the liquid of a container with that of another container with which the needle has previously come into contact.

The presence of two needle-holder slides 9, the equipped with independent motors for movement along the y-y and z-z axes, allows the equipment to be programmed so as to simultaneously withdraw or transfer liquid with both dispensing needles, in order to increase the productivity of the equipment itself.

The reaction plates and the rotating table.

The equipment operates with reaction plates 26 (Fig. 5), already known for use in automatic analysis equipment, commonly made of transparent plastic and having an approximately rectangular shape. Said plates in their upper face have a plurality of cylindrical cavities 26A, for example 96, on the walls of which specific antibodies of the type of examination to be performed have been deposited. The cavities 26A are intended to receive a biological liquid from a test tube 3.1 and one or more reagents from a bottle 5.1 by means of the dispensing system described above.

Each of said reaction plates is inserted with slight friction into an opening of a trolley 27, said trolley comprising a rectangular frame 27.1 on the long sides of which two pairs of wheels 27.2 are mounted. Each wheel has an annular groove 27.3.

The rotating table 13 (Fig. 1) is supported by the base plate 1 by means of bearings not shown in the drawing, and can be rotated by a motor 13M, placed under the base plate 1, by means of a transmission with two toothed belts 13N, 13P and a reduction unit 13Q and a pulley 13R coaxial and integral with the table 13. Said rotating table carries four stations 13A arranged at 90 degrees to each other around the axis of rotation A of the table. Each station comprises a seat for a trolley 27 equipped with a reaction plate 26, said seat being formed by a pair of tracks 29 adapted to receive the grooves 27.3 of the respective wheels of the trolley 27.

The table can have each of the four reaction plates 26 in one of the following positions, with reference to Fig. 1 and rotating clockwise around the axis of rotation of the table:

- a position near the lower edge of the drawing, for the manual loading of the plates 26 with the relative trolley 27;

a position rotated by 90 ° with respect to the previous one, in which the dispensing device can load biological liquids and reagents into the cavities 26A; - a position rotated by 90 ° with respect to the previous one, for the incubation of the reactions and the washing of the cavities 26A at the end of them;

- a position rotated by about 45 ° with respect to the previous one, for the possible transfer of the trolley 27 and the relative plate 26 from the table 13 into the incubation magazine 17 and vice versa;

- a position rotated by 45 ° with respect to the previous one, for the transfer of the trolley 27 and of the relative plate 26 from the table 11 to the reading unit 19 for the reading of the result of the reactions occurred in the cavities 26A, and vice versa.

It is understood that the incubation and washing can take place in more than one of the positions listed above, depending on the operating conditions of the machine and the distribution of the dosage and incubation times.

In each station 13A the tracks 29 are carried by a structure which comprises a plate 13B (Fig.13), supported by the table 13 by means of elastic rubber elements 13C and carrying a small electric motor 130 which rotates an eccentric mass 13E. The rotation of said eccentric mass 13E and the fact that the plate 13B is mounted on elastic elements 13C generates a vibratory motion of the plate 13B and of the parts integral with it, including the reaction plate 26, causing agitation of the liquids contained in the cavities 26A of this.

Furthermore, near the lower surface of the reaction plate 26 the plate 13B carries a metal plate 13F to which heating elements 13H, such as electric resistances or the like, are applied at the bottom to keep the plates 13F, 26 and the liquids contained in the cavities 26A of the latter at a convenient incubation temperature.

In this way, during the residence period of the plates 26 in the positions 13A of the table 13 it is possible to stir and heat the contents of the cavities 26A of the plates 26 to favor the development of the reactions.

The electric motor 13D for the vibration and the heating elements 13H are powered by means of electric cables not shown and which develop between the lower face of the table 13 and the base plate 1 with a loop pattern, so as to allow a rotation of the table. 13 sufficient to transfer each station from the manual loading position to the reading position and vice versa with rotations in both directions of the table itself without the need for sliding contacts.

The washing system of the cavities of the reaction plates.

After the time foreseen for the reactions, the antibodies deposited on the walls of the cavities 26A are bound with any antigens present in the biological liquid, giving rise to antibody-antigen complexes, and the residual liquid must be eliminated from the cavities 26A before proceeding. reading the result. For this purpose, an arm 15 (Figures 1, 7, 8, 9), rotatably supported by a column 1A coaxial with the rotating table 13 and fixed to the base plate 1, carries a system for removing the liquids from the cavities 26A and washing of the cavities themselves.

Said arm 15 carries at the top a motor 15B which, by means of a toothed belt 15C transmission between its driving pulley 15D and a pulley 15E fixed coaxially to the column 15A, can make the arm 15 rotate in any position around said column.

The arm 15 also carries two parallel rectilinear guides 15F which extend horizontally along the arm itself, radially with respect to the rotating table 13, and on which a carriage 15M can slide. Said carriage 15M can be moved in both directions along said guides by a motor 15N, fixed above the arm 15, by means of a toothed belt 15P fixed at one point to the carriage itself with a plate 15R and suitably returned by means of two pulleys 15S carried by the arm 15.

The trolley 15M is integral with a rectangular-shaped frame 15T placed vertically below it (Fig. 9), said frame carrying two vertical guides 15U on which a slide 152 carrying the washing means can slide, which can be vertically moved by a 15W gear motor. For this purpose, the gearmotor 15W is fixed to the small frame 15T and on the motion output shaft it has a disc 15X which carries a pin spaced from the center, said pin being sliding inside a slot 15Y of a bracket integral with the slide 15Z.

Fixed below the slide 15Z is a rack provided with a row of pairs of vertical tubes 16A, 16B oriented orthogonally to the radial guides 15F of the arm 15, said pairs being equal in number to the number of cavities 26A present in each row of the plates 26 parallel to said rack, in the example eight cavities, and the said cavities being spaced apart from each other.

The horizontal stroke of the carriage 15M is such that the rack can be carried in correspondence with any of said rows of cavities 26A of the respective plate 26, and the vertical stroke of the slide 15 / is sufficient to carry the lower end of at least one of said vertical tubes 16A, 16B to touch the bottom of the cavities 26A and to lift them out of the encumbrance of the plate 26 to allow horizontal displacements of the rack.

The tubes 16A, 16B of the rack are connected respectively to a washing water inflow tube 16C and to a suction tube 16D, the tubes 16B being slightly longer than the tubes 16A to ensure that with suction through the tube 19 most of the liquid contained in the cavities 26A is sucked.

The possibility of rotating the arm 15 by means of the motor 15N allows the washing operation to be carried out in any position and in any angular position of the table 13, even during its movement.

The intermediate warehouse for the development of reactions.

If particularly long reaction times are required, in order not to reduce the productivity of the apparatus, the trolleys 27, which have been loaded on the table 13 together with the relative plates 26, can be left to stand for a programmed time in the warehouse 17. The warehouse comprises a parking unit consisting of a box structure formed by two vertical side walls 17A, 17B, connected to each other by two horizontal plates 17C, 17D, on said side walls being fixed superimposed pairs of tracks indicated with 17E, each pair being able to house a trolley 27.

Said warehouse box structure can be made to slide vertically along two guides 17F, 17H fixed to the base plate 1 by means of a bracket 17L, for handling by providing a motor 17M by means of a toothed belt 17N wound on a driving pulley 17P and a pulley neutral 17R and fixed to a 17S bracket integral with the box structure.

The vertical stroke of the box-like structure of the magazine 17 is such as to allow any pair of magazine tracks 17E to face onto the extension of the tracks 29 of a station of the table 13 when this is stopped in front of the warehouse itself; in this way a translation device of the trolley 27 can make said trolley pass from the position on the table 13 to one of said pairs of tracks 17E and vice versa.

The device that carries out said translation comprises a transfer trolley 18 equipped with two pairs of wheels like those of the trolley 27 and with the same gauge, sliding on two short tracks 18A integral with the base plate 1 and aligned with the tracks 29 of the rotary table 13 in the position of transfer to the warehouse 17. Said trolley 18 can be moved in the direction of said tracks by a motor 18B through a toothed belt 18C which winds on a pulley 18U mounted on the shaft of the motor 18B and on a transmission pulley 18E idler carried by a support integral with the base plate 1, said belt being fixed at one point to a relay 18F integral with the trolley 18.

The trolley 18 comprises a hook 18H (Fig. 10) adapted to engage with a pin 27.A of the trolley 27 which carries the reaction plate 26, said hook being urged by a spring 18L to maintain contact with said pin 27 .TO. A pusher 18M can be urged to release the hook 18, overcoming the action of the spring 18L, from the pin 27.A by means of the action of two eccentrics 18N, 18P which, mounted on respective shafts of two fixed electric motors 18R, 18S to the base plate 1, are placed along the stroke of the trolley 18. The eccentric 18P is used to release the trolley 27 when this is repositioned on the rotating table 13, and the eccentric 18N is used to operate the release when the trolley 27 is located in the magazine 17, in the position illustrated with an indicative line in Fig. 10.

In this way, after having rotated the table 13 into the position with the rails 29 of one of its station 13A aligned with those of the ISA rails of the trolley 18 and carried (with vertical movement of the box structure of the warehouse 17) a pair of rails 17E of the magazine 17 in alignment with both said pairs of tracks 29, ISA, it is possible with a suitable command sequence of the translation motor of the trolley 18 and of the motors of the eccentrics 1SN, 18P to translate the trolley 27 from said station 13A into the warehouse 17 or vice versa .

The unit of reading the result of the reaction.

The reading unit 19 comprises a pair of tracks 19A (Figs. 12 and 13) integral with a structure fixed to the base plate 1, which can be aligned with the tracks 29 of any of the positions 13A of the table 13, by means of suitable positioning angle of the table 13 itself. A transfer trolley 19B, such as that 18 of the magazine 17, can be moved along said tracks 19A to hook a trolley 27 with the relative reaction plate 26 which is located in the position 13A of the table 13 temporarily aligned with the reading unit, and bring it with a row of cavities 26A under a lighting unit 19C, carried by a portal structure.

For this purpose, the trolley 19B is moved by an electric stepper motor 19D, fixed to the base plate 1, by means of a toothed belt 19E which winds on a driving pulley 19F and on a driven pulley 19H supported by a support. fixed to the base plate 1, said belt being fixed at one point to a bracket 19M of the trolley 19B. A release device with motor 19R and eccentric 19P, placed near the rotary table 13, can act on the pusher 19N of the trolley 19B to release the hook 19S of the trolley itself from the pin 27.4 of the trolley 27 carrying the reaction plate 26 when this is been reported on the rotary table 13 after reading, so as to allow a new rotation of the honeycomb 13.

The lighting unit 19C comprises a row of light sources each placed in correspondence with a cavity 26A of a row of said cavity 21A provided in the reaction plate 26, said row being perpendicular to the direction of translation of the trolley 19B. Each light source comprises an optical fiber 19V which illuminates a single cavity 26A from above, with the light emitted by a lamp (not shown) placed away from the unit 19C, for example in the compartment below the reading unit 19.

In correspondence with the row of light sources 19T and vertically below the reaction plate 26 being read (illustrated with an indicative line in Fig. 13) there is a row of optical sensors 19W, each of them being struck by the light it has passed through a single cavity 26A. Between the reaction plate 26 and the optical sensors 19W there is a filter holder plate 19X carrying light filters, not shown, to allow the optical sensors to reach the wavelength band where the absorption due to the compounds is maximum. developed by the reaction. Said filter-holder plate 19X can contain several filters, differentiated from each other according to the type of analysis to be carried out and the plate 19X is carried by a carriage 19Y sliding parallel to the tracks 19A on special guides 19Z. An electric motor 20 by means of a belt 20A moves said plate 19X in a similar way to that described for the trolley 19B, in order to bring the required filter under the sources 19T from time to time.

The central command unit.

Engines activation and deactivation

of the heating elements, of the pumps and in general of all the actuators of the described apparatus are programmable by means of a central control unit not shown, equipped with integrated circuits with a coded program and amplification circuits in order to allow:

- the two-way coupling between any test tube containing biological liquid placed in a determined position of the support 3, and a cavity 26A of a reaction plate loaded into the apparatus;

- execution of programmed sequences for each type of analysis, with dosed sampling of reagents, execution of incubation cycles (thermostation, shaking, pause), cavity washing and optical reading;

- the recording of the values read by the equipment combined with the alphanumeric code of the relative test tube of biological liquid and the type of analysis performed.

The structure of the described apparatus is such that while the means 9, 11, 23, 25 perform on the cavities 26A of the plate 26, located in the position adjacent to the support 5, the operations of dispensing the samples, taken from the test tubes arranged on the support 3 , and any reagents taken from the bottles 21 on the support 5, the following operations can be performed on the other three plates 26 arranged on the rotating table 13:

- incubation with possible shaking and thermostating (at temperatures and intensity of vibration that can be selected independently for each station 13A);

- washing by means of the arm 15 through which the washing means are controlled along the polar coordinates defined by the angle of rotation of the arm 15 around the column 14 (and therefore to the axis A-A of the rotating table 13) and by the position of the trolley 15M along the guides 15F;

- reading of the analysis result by means of the reading unit 19;

- manual unloading of the plate already subjected to reading and manual loading of a virgin plate. When the incubation times are particularly long, or when a large number of plates 26 need to be treated simultaneously, these can be transferred to the intermediate magazine 17.

One or two bar code readers can be associated with the support 3 of the biological liquid samples, in a per se known manner. A first of these readers can be placed in a radial position external to the support, while the possible second reader can be placed in an internal radial position between the rotation axis w-w of the support 3 and the innermost row of housings 3.1. These housings are suitably offset from each other in the circumferential direction to allow the reading of the bar codes present on two concentric (and staggered) circumferential rows of test tubes housed in the support 3. The intermediate area of the support 3, where it is not possible to read the codes by means of the two readers, it can be used to arrange a series of test tubes for carrying out the dilutions of the samples to be analyzed, according to methods known to those skilled in the art.

It is understood that the drawing shows only one possible embodiment of the invention, which can vary in the forms and arrangements, without departing from the scope of the inventive concept.

The presence of reference numbers in the attached claims does not limit the scope of protection, but has the sole purpose of facilitating reading with reference to the description of the example of embodiment.

Claims (13)

CLAIMS 1. An apparatus for immune analysis comprising: a first support (3) for a plurality of biological liquid samples to be analyzed; a second support (5) for a plurality of bottles containing reagents; a third support (13) for plates (26) having cavities (26A) into which the biological liquid to be analyzed and the reagent are dispensed; a dispensing arm (7.10, 7.11) carrying dispensing means (9, 11, 25) which selectively take said samples of biological liquid and dispense it into said cavities (26A); and washing means (15Z, 16A, 16B) for washing said cavities, characterized by the fact - that said third support (13) for said plates (26) comprises a rotating table (13) with a substantially vertical axis of rotation (A), with a plurality of positions (13A) for corresponding plates (26), which moves said plates from one to the other of a plurality of positions; - and that said washing means (15Z, 16A, 16B) are associated with said rotating table (13) for washing the cavities (26A) of said plates (26), which are controlled according to a system of polar coordinates with respect to the rotation axis (A) of said rotary table. 2. Apparatus as per claim 1, comprising a plate reading unit (19) (26) and transfer means (19B, 19D, 19E), which selectively transfer the plates (26) from said rotating table (13) to said reading unit (19) and vice versa. 3. Apparatus as per claim 1 or 2, in which said washing means (15Z, 16A, 16B) are carried by a trolley (15M) movable along a radial arm (15) provided with a rotary movement around the axis (A ) of rotation of said rotary table (13) and extending in a radial direction above said rotary table. 4. Apparatus according to claim 3, in which said washing means are movable vertically with respect to said trolley (15M). 5. Apparatus according to one or more of the preceding claims, in which said rotating table (13) has four positions: for working, for loading the plate, for dispensing the samples and for any reagents, for incubation and for transfer to the reading (19), respectively. 6. Apparatus according to one or more of the preceding claims, in which each station (13A) of said rotating table has respective and independent thermostating (13H) and vibration (13D, 13E) means. 7. Apparatus as per one or more of the preceding claims, in which said rotating table (13) has, for each station (13A), a guide system (29) for a corresponding trolley (27) carrying a respective plate (26) . 8. Apparatus as per claims 2 and 7, in which said reading unit (19) has its own guide system (19A), and in which for the transfer of a plate from the rotating table (13) to said reading unit ( 19) the guide system (29) of the rotating table (13) associated with the station (13A) where the plate to be transferred is located is aligned with the guide system (19A) of the reading unit (19), a transfer (19B) taking the plate from the rotating table and transferring it to the reading unit and vice versa. 9. Apparatus as per claim 8, wherein said transfer trolley (19B) has an elastic hooking tooth (19S) for hooking the trolley (27) carrying the plate to be transferred, an release means (19P, 19R) being provided to release said carriage carrying the plate from said transfer carriage (19B). 10. Apparatus as per one or more of the preceding claims, in which an intermediate magazine (17) is associated with said rotating table (17), in which the plates (26) in which the plates (26) have been dispensed can be transferred and kept in incubation. samples of biological liquid to be analyzed, transfer means (18) being provided for transferring individual plates from said rotating table to said magazine and vice versa. 11. Apparatus as per claim 10, in which said intermediate magazine (17) has a vertically movable parking unit (17A, 17B, 17C, 17D), equipped with a plurality of housings (17E) for said plates (26), each housing being able to be selectively brought into alignment with said rotary table to transfer a respective plate (26) from said rotary table (13) to said housing (17E), or vice versa. 12. Apparatus according to claims 7 and 11, in which each housing (17E) of said stop group (17A, 17B, 17C, 17D) has guides (17E) which are selectively brought into alignment with the guide system (26) of a respective station (13A) of the rotating table (13) to transfer the trolley (27) with the respective plate (26) from the rotating table (13) to the parking unit (17A, 17B, 17C, 17D) or vice versa. 13. Apparatus as per claim 12, in which said intermediate magazine (17) is associated with a transfer trolley (18) with an elastic hooking tooth (18H) which engages the tag (27) to be transferred from the rotating table (13) to the intermediate magazine (17) or vice versa, two release means (18N, 18K, 18P, 18S) being provided to open said hooking tooth (18H) in two positions of the transfer trolley (18). M. Apparatus as per one or more of the preceding claims, in which said dispensing arm (7.10, 7.11) is equipped with a dispensing equipment (9, 11) movable along two substantially horizontal orthogonal axes (x-x, y-y), with at least one needle dispenser (25.5) vertically movable along a substantially vertical third axis (z-z). 15. Apparatus as per claim 14, wherein said dispensing equipment comprises two dispensing needles (25.5) parallel to each other and with variable interdistance, each needle being movable independently of the other along said third axis (Z). 16. Apparatus as per claim 15, in which said two dispensing needles (25.5) have a variable distance in a direction parallel to the dispensing arm (7.10, 7.11), and in which each of said needles is carried by a respective slide (9, 11) operated by its own actuator (9.1; 11.1), the independent movements of the two actuators determining the interdistance variation of said dispensing needles (25.5). 17. Apparatus as per claim 2, in which said reading unit has a portal structure (19C) on which a row of light radiation sources (19T) is arranged, under which corresponding detectors (19W) are arranged, the plate to be read (26) being made to pass between said sources (19T) and said detectors (19W). 18. Apparatus as per claim 17, in which a filter holder (19X) is arranged between said sources (19T) and said detectors (19W), with a plurality of filters which can be selectively positioned between said sources and said detectors, an actuator ( 20) being provided to translate said filter holder (19X). 19. Apparatus according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said first support (3) for the samples to be analyzed is a support rotating around a substantially vertical axis (w-w), and equipped with a plurality of housings (3.1 ) to house corresponding tubes containing the samples of biological liquids to be analyzed. 20. Apparatus as per claim 19, in which said housings (3.1) are arranged according to at least two circumferentially offset series, a bar code reading system being provided for reading any labels applied to the test tubes inserted in said housings.