JP2002196009A - Automatic analyzer, its automatic specimen feeder and analyzing method for liquid sample - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic specimen feeder and an automatic analyzer provided with this capable of smoothly, positively and automatically feeding an elongated sample piece by a simple structure irrespective of a curvature of the sample piece. SOLUTION: The automatic specimen feeder and the automatic analyzer provided with the automatic specimen feeder is provided with a mechanism putting strip specimen pieces into a cassette with opposing grooves cut in its inner surface, grabbing end parts of the specimen pieces by a pair of jigs and taking them out one by one. By this, the specimen pieces can be automatically taken out one by one just by putting the cassette housing the specimen pieces into the feeder.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer for analyzing components of a liquid sample using a test piece impregnated with a reagent. The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer suitable for use and analysis, and an automatic test strip supply device used for the automatic analyzer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a clinical test at a hospital, a plurality of analysis items in a urine sample or a blood sample are easily tested.
Often test specimens are used. The test piece is formed by attaching a plurality of test layers impregnated with a reagent to an elongated plate-like strip made of plastic, paper, or the like.

[0003] In the analysis, after a sample is attached to a test layer adhered on a test piece, a change in color of the reagent is performed after a certain period of time required for the reaction between the sample and the reagent impregnated in the test layer. Observe and analyze the components in the sample. When the number of samples is small, the clinical laboratory technician compares the change in the color of the test piece with the color chart and performs component analysis with the naked eye to perform the test.However, when processing a large number of samples in a short time, Automatic analyzers that automate the handling of test pieces have become widespread because the above measures cannot be made in time. As a technique relating to such an automatic analyzer, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-91571, an arm having a test piece gripper moves between a test table supply mechanism, a sample table on which a sample container on which a test piece to be immersed is mounted, and a photometric mechanism, and a colored test piece is moved. A technique for photometry is disclosed. The test piece supply mechanism puts the test piece at the position where the arm starts transporting the test piece.
These are supplied one by one. A test strip supply mechanism disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-91571 has a configuration in which a hopper in which a test strip is loaded is provided with a slidable bottom, and the test strip is supplied to the hopper by moving the bottom. The test pieces are taken out one by one using a slider from the bottom of the cassette in which the test pieces are stored in a line.

The test piece supply mechanism using a hopper described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-91571 employs a method of feeding a long and thin test piece by sliding the bottom of the hopper. When the test piece was pulled out, another test piece was easily caught between the wall and the bottom of the hopper, which hindered smooth operation.

In order to solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No.
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3960, a through-hole that allows a test piece to be fitted into a cylindrical wall of a cylindrical container that houses a plurality of test pieces is formed, and the cylindrical container is reciprocally rotated.
A structure has been proposed in which a test piece can be taken out of a container by fitting the test piece into a through groove using this reciprocating motion.

Further, in a test piece supply mechanism using a cassette, there is a problem that the number of stored test pieces is small because the test pieces can be stacked only in one line.

[0007]

Problems to be Solved by the Invention
The technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 0-91571 is disclosed in
Has been improved compared to the technology disclosed in
Even in the above structure, the test piece rarely does not completely enter the through groove, and the test piece cannot be automatically supplied smoothly.

An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic analyzer and a test piece automatic supply device having a mechanism capable of smoothly and surely automatically supplying a curved test piece.

[0009]

According to the present invention, a cassette containing a plurality of test pieces (a box-shaped test piece supply container) is mounted on an analyzer, and the gripper is moved to a position for receiving the test pieces in the cassette. Extrusion of one specimen in the cassette pushes both ends of the specimen into the gripper. Since both ends of the test piece are in grooves inside the cassette, even if the test piece is curved, the positions of both ends of the test piece hardly change. With the above configuration, even a curved test piece can grasp both ends of the test piece, so that only one test piece can be reliably taken out.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (Embodiment 1) The automatic test strip supply mechanism of the present invention can be applied to any apparatus that analyzes a liquid sample using a test strip. The present invention will be described using an example of application to an automatic urine analyzer for analyzing components.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of a configuration for taking out a test piece. The test piece 3 is loaded into a cassette 6 having a plurality of pairs of grooves facing each other on the inside. The test piece is assumed to be a so-called disposable cassette supplied from a reagent maker in a state of being loaded in the cassette, but it is also possible for the user to load the test piece into the cassette and use it.

On the lower side of the cassette, a pair of through-grooves for inserting an arm 2 for pushing a test piece from the rear side into the inside of the cassette are provided. In this embodiment, the test piece in an arbitrary groove can be selected by moving the cassette itself up and down, and the test piece can be pushed out by moving the arm in the horizontal direction. By moving the arm vertically and horizontally,
Although it is possible to take out a test piece in an arbitrary groove, it is possible to take out the cassette only in the vertical direction and the arm only in the horizontal direction in this embodiment because the driving mechanism of the arm becomes complicated. The drive mechanism has been simplified. With this mechanism, the test piece take-out mechanism described later only needs to be provided with the horizontal movement mechanism, so that the entire apparatus can be made compact.

The pair of grippers 1 can be moved to the front of the cassette in the horizontal direction. At this time, by the pushing operation of the arm 2 in the horizontal direction, the vicinity of both ends of the test piece can be inserted and gripped. The test piece is conveyed onto the bed 4 by horizontally moving the gripper holding the test piece in the direction of the bed 4. On the bed 4, the test sample is subjected to spotting and dispensing of the measurement sample (dropping the sample onto each reagent pad on the test sample). The reagent on the test piece reacts with the sample, and develops a color proportional to the component concentration of the measurement sample. The bed 4 has a plurality of saw-shaped stoppers 5. Each time a new test piece is taken out of the cassette 6 by the gripper 1, the test piece that has been spotted and dispensed is sent from the stopper to the next stopper on the bed 4 in the frontward direction in FIG. If one cycle of taking out a new test piece is one cycle, the coloring reaction time can be controlled by the time of one cycle and the number of stoppers. For example, if one cycle time is 15 seconds and the number of stoppers is 4, the color reaction time can be set to 60 seconds. At the last stopper position, the test strip analyzes the color of each reagent pad. The analysis is performed by a known method, for example, by measuring the intensity of each reflected light of light irradiated by a light emitting diode of three wavelengths using a phototransistor, a photodiode, or the like. After the analysis, the test piece is dropped from the groove at the foremost side of the bed 4 shown in FIG. 1 and collected as waste.

The mechanism for gripping the test piece with the gripper will be described in detail. FIG. 2 shows a cycle in which the test piece 3 is gripped by the gripper. The test piece 3 is pushed into the tip of the stationary gripper 1 by horizontally moving the arm 2. In this figure, a single test piece is pushed in. However, even if the last test piece of a plurality of test pieces in the same groove of the cassette shown in FIG.
Similarly, the test specimen can be pushed into the gripper. The gripper holding the test piece translates rightward in FIG. The positioning stopper 7 has a structure that can be rotated clockwise (hereinafter, CW) by the rotating shaft 10. The gripper 1 gripping the test piece 3 hits the upper end of the positioning stopper 7 and moves to the right even if the stopper 7 rotates in the CW direction. Move up to. Test piece 3
When the positioning stopper moves to a position where it does not contact the upper end of the positioning stopper 7, the positioning stopper is restored to an upright state by a spring or its own weight. The stopper 7 is provided with a stopper so as not to rotate counterclockwise (hereinafter, CCW) from the upright state. Therefore, when the gripper 1 moves leftward in FIG. 2, the test piece 3 hits the positioning stopper 7 and does not move leftward from this position. This position of the test piece is a position at which the sample is dropped and dispensed onto the test piece. By providing the stopper in this manner, it is possible to accurately perform dispensing and dispensing on each reagent pad of the test piece. As can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 2, the gripper 1
When viewed from the side, it has a structure in which two plate-shaped members are opposed to each other with an interval. Since the tip of the gripper 1 needs to hold the test piece 3, the interval between the two plate members is set to be slightly smaller than the thickness of the test piece 3. Thus, the test piece 3 is held by the friction when the test piece 3 is sandwiched between the gripper 1 from above and below. As shown in FIG. 1, the gripper bends one plate-like member into an L-shape and makes a cut at the tip so that a suitable frictional force can be obtained by the elastic force of the plate-like member. The material, the interval between the cuts at the tip, and the thickness of the plate member are appropriately selected.

The gripper 1 can move further to the left in FIG. 2 even when the test piece 3 is positioned against the positioning stopper 7. This is because the test piece can go deeper through the cut at the tip of the gripper 1. Therefore, when positioning the test piece, by moving the gripper extra to the left in FIG. 2, it is possible to eliminate dimensional errors such as the position of the cassette, the amount of pushing by the arm 2, and the like, and accurately position the test piece. Can be.

When the gripper is further moved to the left after the positioning operation of the test piece 3, the gripper 1 has a groove which sandwiches the central test piece 3 from above and below.
2 can be moved to the left in FIG. 2 while being held by the positioning stopper 7, and can be moved to a position where a new test piece is taken out from the cassette 6. In this way, the operation of taking out new test pieces one after another can be continued.

Next, the operation of transporting the test piece after sample dispensing will be described. FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 show the operation of each component when the operation of taking out the test piece 3, the test piece after the position operation, and the test piece being transported are performed simultaneously. Actually, one of the components on both sides has been omitted for clarity.

FIG. 3 shows that, in the last step of FIG. 2, after the test piece 3 is positioned at the positioning position by the gripper 1, the gripper is moved further to the side of the cassette, so that a new test piece in the cassette is obtained. 3 to gripper 1
This shows a state in which the test piece is located at the positioning position of the test piece and the position of the next cycle in a state where it is held. Since the gripper 1 and the upper rail 8 are fixed to the holder 9, they are structured to move at the same time.

FIG. 4 shows a state in which the test piece 3 newly taken out of the state shown in FIG. 3 is carried in the carrying direction. Gripper 1
When the gripper 1 is moved in the front direction in FIG. 4 to take out the test piece 3 gripped by the gripper, the upper rail 8 fixed to the holder 9 together with the gripper 1 is moved.
Also move forward. Then, the positioning stopper 7
The test piece at the positioning position is moved in the arrow direction by the first (tip) hooking (saw blade) portion of the upper blade 8 having the saw blade shape, and climbs over the first hooking portion of the lower rail 5 to move to the next position. To the cycle position. Similarly, the test piece at the second hook of the lower rail 5 is moved to the near side in FIG. 4 by the second hook of the upper rail. At this time, the test piece grabbed from the cassette
It is moving while rotating the positioning stopper.

Next, the gripper 1 and the upper rail 8 are moved in the direction opposite to the conveying direction (the depth side in the drawing) to position the spotting position of the test piece, and further moved to the position where the new test piece is gripped from the cassette. FIG. 5 shows the state of moving to. Since the upper rail 8 is tapered on the cassette side, when moving the upper rail in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 5, the upper rail 8 passes through both ends of the test piece at each cycle position while being pushed down. At this time, the test piece 3 does not move in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 5 but stays at each cycle position where the lower rail is hooked due to the effect of the hooked portion of the lower rail.

By repeating the above operation, it is possible to continuously take out new test pieces and carry out the operation of transporting the test pieces that have been spotted and dispensed. In addition, cycle transport can be performed with only one test piece. Furthermore, by not pushing the test piece by the arm 2 during the cycle, one or more test pieces can be transported in a discontinuous state.

As a gripper, in addition to the method of holding with a frictional force as in the first embodiment, a well-known method by air suction and a scissor mechanism by pushing and pulling a release can also be used. By providing a test piece holding mechanism at the part corresponding to the hooked part of the upper rail, it is possible to take out the test piece from the cassette and transport the test piece after dripping and dispensing at the same time. Become. In this case, even if the gripper does not reciprocate, the test pieces can be positioned by releasing the holding of the test pieces at the spotting position and the test piece standby position. Regarding the mechanism, the method using the frictional force according to the first embodiment can simplify the mechanism most easily and can expect a reliable operation. (Embodiment 2) FIG. 6 shows the details of the drive mechanism of the gripper 1 and the upper rail 8. The belt 21 is rotated by the motor 20, and the holder 9 engaged with the belt moves in parallel along the rail 22.

FIG. 7 is an overall view of an automatic analyzer using the automatic test piece supply mechanism used in the first embodiment. The cassette for storing the test pieces is stored in the cassette mechanism 10. The test piece taken out of the cassette is transported leftward in the figure. The pipetting mechanism 11 performs pipetting while moving in the longitudinal direction of the test piece so that the sample can be dropped on each reagent pad on the test piece. After dispensing and dispensing the sample, the test piece with a certain reaction time is analyzed by the photometer 12. The sample to be inspected is placed in a container such as a test tube and set in the apparatus.

In this apparatus, data of a sample contained in a test tube (in the case of urine, patient name, ID number, etc.)
The bar code attached to the test tube is read by a bar code reader 13 and controlled by a microcomputer (not shown) so that the analysis result of the sample by the photometer can be compared with the sample data. Is provided on the LCD monitor 14.

A method of dropping a liquid sample onto a test piece will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The nozzle 50 sucks the liquid sample in the sample tube 60 by the operation of the plunger 56 of the syringe 52 and moves above the test piece.
After stopping the nozzle above the target reagent pad 57,
The nozzle is lowered so as to approach the reagent pad 57, and the sucked liquid sample is discharged to supply a required amount of sample to the reagent pad. After the dropping of the sample, the nozzle 50 moves to the cleaning tank 56, sucks the cleaning water 55 from the cleaning tank 54 and discharges it from the nozzle side.
Wash the inside of 1. On the other hand, after a certain period of time, the test piece dropped with the liquid sample is irradiated with the light of the LED 72 of the photometer 70 on the reagent pad 57, the reflected light is received by the photodiode 71, and the color development of each reagent pad is measured. Perform component analysis. The test specimen after the measurement is moved to the waste container 80 and stored.

[0026]

According to the present invention, there is provided an automatic test strip supply apparatus which can smoothly and reliably automatically supply an elongated test strip irrespective of the curvature of the test strip with a simple structure. The operability can be remarkably improved by applying this automatic test strip supply apparatus to an automatic analyzer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a layout view of a main part of a test piece supply apparatus to which the present description is applied.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a positioning operation of a test piece of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of the arrangement of components for transporting a test piece of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the apparatus of FIG. 1 when moving in the test piece transport direction.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of the operation of the apparatus of FIG. 1 when the test piece is transported in the reverse direction.

FIG. 6 is a detailed view of the gripper driving mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an overall view of an automatic analyzer according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating an analysis process of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Gripper, 2 ... Test piece pushing arm, 3 ... Test piece, 4 ... Bed, 5 ... Lower rail, 6 ... Cassette, 7 ...
Positioning stopper, 8 ... Upper rail, 9 ... Holder,
10 ... Rotary axis.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor, Hakuo Owada, 882, Omo, Ichiki, Hitachinaka-shi, Ibaraki Prefecture Within the measuring instruments group of Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi Science Systems, Ltd. (72) Katsuaki Araki, Inventor, Katsuaki Araki 1040, Oji-shi, Hitachinaka-shi, Ibaraki, Japan Incorporated Hitachi Science Systems, Ltd. Within Systems (72) Inventor Koichi Asada 1040 Ma, Ichiki, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture Inside Hitachi Science Systems, Ltd. (72) Keiichi Iida 1040 Ma, Ichimo, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture F-term in Hitachi Science Systems, Ltd. (reference 2G058 CC08 CC11 CD11 CD24 CF16 EA04 EA11 ED03 FB05 GA01 3F022 AA10 EE05 KK11 NN01 QQ11

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An inner wall of a hollow box-shaped container has two opposing surfaces,
Two or more pairs of opposed grooves are provided, and a test strip cassette capable of holding a plurality of strip-shaped test pieces in the box-shaped container by inserting both ends of the test piece into the grooves; A mechanism for gripping the vicinity of the end with a pair of jigs and taking out the test pieces one by one from the test piece cassette. 2. A pair of jigs according to claim 1, wherein the pair of jigs sandwiches the vicinity of an end of the test piece from above and below, and grips the test piece by a frictional force between the upper and lower surfaces of the test piece and the jig. An automatic test strip supplying apparatus. 3. The automatic test piece supply apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the jig is a pair of members, at least tips of which face each other at an interval smaller than the thickness of the test piece. 4. The test strip automatic supply device according to claim 2, wherein, among the one or more test strips inserted into the pair of grooves of the cassette, a test farthest from the jig. An automatic test strip supplying apparatus, comprising: a mechanism for inserting one test piece into the jig by applying a pushing force to the piece in the direction of the jig. 5. An automatic test strip supply apparatus, wherein a target test strip can be taken out by moving the test strip cassette itself according to claim 1. 6. The automatic test strip supply apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the jig holding the test strip is moved away from the test strip cassette, and then the jig is again set. The test piece is brought close to the cassette, and at the time of the approach, a stopper is projected on an extension of the traveling direction of the gripped test piece, so that the test piece is brought into contact with the stopper, and the jig movement of the test piece is performed. An automatic test strip supply device comprising a mechanism for accurately determining a position in a direction. 7. The stopper according to claim 6, wherein the stopper has an axis substantially perpendicular to a moving direction of the jig, is a member rotatable around the axis, and has a length of the jig. It has a length that intersects with the extension of the moving direction, and is rotatable in a direction away from the cassette, but in a direction approaching the cassette, in a direction approaching the cassette from a substantially vertical direction. An automatic test piece feeding device characterized in that it does not rotate. 8. A test strip automatic supply apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a mechanism capable of taking out a test strip in an arbitrary groove by moving said cassette in a vertical direction. Characteristic automatic test strip feeder. 9. An inner wall of a hollow box-shaped container having two opposing surfaces,
Two or more pairs of opposed grooves are provided, and a test strip cassette capable of holding a plurality of strip-shaped test pieces in the box-shaped container by inserting both ends of the test piece into the grooves; A mechanism for gripping the vicinity of the end with a pair of jigs and taking out the test pieces one by one from the test piece cassette; and a test strip automatic supply device, and a liquid sample is dropped on a reagent pad on the test piece. An automatic analyzer comprising: a nozzle; and a detector that detects a color of a reagent pad onto which the liquid sample has been dropped. 10. Two or more pairs of opposing grooves are provided on two opposing surfaces of the inner wall of a hollow box-like container, and a strip-shaped test piece is inserted into both ends of the test piece into the groove. The test piece is set on a test piece cassette that can hold a plurality of pieces in the box-shaped container, and the vicinity of an end portion of the test piece is gripped by a pair of jigs and the jig is pulled, whereby the test piece is placed on the test piece. A liquid which is taken out of a cassette one by one, a liquid sample is dropped on a reagent pad on the test piece taken out, and a component of the liquid is examined by detecting a color of the reagent pad with an optical sensor after a predetermined time. Sample analysis method.