JP2010243307A - Automatic analyzer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve sensitivity to fouling on a reaction tube, in an automatic analyzer for determining whether the reaction tube is fouled or not. <P>SOLUTION: An irradiation part 52 irradiates a photometric beam toward the reaction tube storing a test solution having an approximately minimum liquid quantity necessary for photometry. A detection part 54 detects the photometric beam irradiated from the irradiation part 52 and transmitted through the test solution. A reaction tube fouling determination part 7 determines whether the reaction tube is fouled or not, based on intensity of the detected photometric beam. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer that determines whether or not a reaction tube is dirty.

  There are automatic analyzers that determine whether a reaction tube is dirty. As a determination method, for example, there is Cuvette Integrity Check as described in Patent Document 1. The Cuvette Integrity Check has the following three steps. Step 1: Light is irradiated to a reference solvent (for example, pure water) whose light absorption rate can be regarded as almost zero, and the transmitted light amount I1 is measured. Step 2: Light is irradiated to the reaction vessel immersed in the reference solvent, and the amount of transmitted light I2 is measured. Step 3: It is determined whether or not the reaction tube is dirty depending on whether the difference between the transmitted light amounts I1 and I2 is greater than or less than a threshold value. This Cuvette Integrity Check cannot determine that a reaction tube is dirty unless a strong stain that cannot be used for photometry is attached to the reaction tube. Accordingly, there is a demand for an automatic analyzer having a determination method that is highly sensitive to dirt so that it can be determined that the reaction tube to which lighter dirt is attached is also dirty.

Japanese Patent No. 2655559

  An object of the present invention is to realize an improvement in sensitivity of a reaction tube to dirt in an automatic analyzer that determines whether or not the reaction tube is dirty.

  An automatic analyzer according to a first aspect of the present invention includes an irradiation unit that irradiates a photometric beam toward a reaction tube in which a solution having a substantially minimum liquid amount necessary for photometry is accommodated, and the irradiation unit that irradiates the solution. A detection unit that detects the transmitted photometric beam; and a determination unit that determines whether the reaction tube is dirty based on the intensity of the detected photometric beam.

  The automatic analyzer according to the second aspect of the present invention is based on a photometry unit that measures a plurality of solutions having a substantially minimum amount of liquid necessary for photometry, which are housed in a plurality of reaction tubes, respectively, and an output from the photometry unit An absorbance calculation unit for calculating a plurality of absorbances for the plurality of solutions, a variation index calculation unit for calculating an index indicating a statistical variation degree based on the calculated plurality of absorbances, and the calculated index And a determination unit that determines whether there are dirty reaction tubes among the plurality of reaction tubes.

  The automatic analyzer according to the third aspect of the present invention photometrically measures a plurality of solutions having a substantially minimum amount required for photometry, which are accommodated in a plurality of first reaction tubes, and is accommodated in a plurality of second reaction tubes. A photometric unit that measures a plurality of solutions with a sufficient amount of liquid for photometry, and a plurality of first absorbances for a plurality of solutions with a substantially minimum liquid amount based on an output from the photometric unit, and from the photometric unit Based on a plurality of second absorbances of a plurality of solutions having a sufficient amount of liquid, based on the calculated average value of the plurality of first absorbances and the average value of the plurality of second absorbances. And a determination unit for determining whether or not there are dirty reaction tubes in the plurality of first reaction tubes.

  An automatic analyzer according to a fourth aspect of the present invention includes a photometric unit that repeatedly measures the amount of a solution corresponding to a substantially minimum amount required for photometry contained in a reaction tube, and an absorbance based on an output from the photometric unit. A calculation unit that repeatedly calculates, and a determination unit that determines whether or not the reaction tube is dirty according to the variation degree of the absorbance calculated repeatedly.

  According to the present invention, in an automatic analyzer that determines whether or not a reaction tube is dirty, the sensitivity of the reaction tube to dirt is improved.

The figure for demonstrating the principle of the contamination determination of the reaction tube which concerns on embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the whole structure of the automatic analyzer which concerns on this embodiment. The figure which shows the structure of the reaction tube dirt determination part of FIG. 2 which concerns on Example 1 of this embodiment. The figure which shows the list | wrist of the determination result of the presence or absence of the light absorbency in each with a stain | pollution | contamination group and a stain | pollution | contamination group based on Example 1, an average absorbance, a standard deviation, and a contamination reaction tube. The graph of the light absorbency of the dirt group and the dirt-free group of FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a reaction tube contamination determination unit in FIG. 2 according to a second embodiment. The figure which shows the list | wrist of the determination result of the light absorbency in each of a dirt group, a dirt-free group, and a reference group, and the presence or absence of a contamination reaction tube based on Example 2. FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a reaction tube contamination determination unit in FIG. 2 according to a third embodiment. The figure which shows the list | wrist of the determination result of the light absorbency in each with a stain | pollution | contamination group, and a reference group based on Example 3, an average light absorbency, accuracy, and the presence or absence of a contamination reaction tube. The graph which shows the time course of the light absorbency of the test solution accommodated in the reaction tube D of FIG. The graph which shows the time course of the light absorbency of the test solution accommodated in the reaction tube E of FIG.

  Hereinafter, an automatic analyzer according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  The automatic analyzer according to the present embodiment performs a process of determining whether or not the reaction tube is dirty, which is more sensitive to dirt than in the past. First, the principle of the reaction tube contamination determination method according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the liquid level of the test solution having the minimum reaction liquid amount in the reaction tube 10 when the reaction tube 10 is dirty and when it is not dirty. The minimum reaction liquid amount is the minimum liquid amount necessary for performing photometry with high accuracy. The minimum amount of the reaction liquid is determined by the manufacturer of the automatic analyzer, and varies from apparatus to apparatus.

  As shown in FIG. 1, it is assumed that the reaction tube 10 in (a) is dirty and the reaction tube 10 in (b) is not dirty. When the reaction tube 10 is not dirty, the photometric beam does not pass through the liquid surface of the test solution, but passes through the test solution below the liquid surface. Therefore, when the reaction tube 10 is not soiled, the absorbance can be measured with high accuracy even with the minimum amount of reaction solution. On the other hand, when the reaction tube 10 is dirty, a change in the liquid level is observed depending on the surface state in the reaction tube 10. Specifically, the test solution is lifted to the wall surface in the reaction tube 10 and the liquid level is lowered as compared with the case where the surface is not soiled. Therefore, the photometric beam passes through the liquid surface of the test solution, and the absorbance cannot be measured with high accuracy. That is, when the test solution having the minimum reaction amount is measured through the dirty reaction tube 10, the measured absorbance is unstable and the reliability is low.

  Therefore, the automatic analyzer according to the present embodiment utilizes the fact that the absorbance measured by measuring the minimum amount of the test solution through the dirty reaction tube is unstable, and the reaction tube becomes dirty. It is determined whether or not.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of the automatic analyzer according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the automatic analyzer includes an input unit 1, a measurement condition setting unit 2, a dispensing mechanism control unit 3, a dispensing mechanism 4, an absorbance calculation unit 6, a reaction tube contamination determination unit 7 (in Example 1). A reaction tube contamination determination unit 7-1, a reaction tube contamination determination unit 7-2 in Example 2, a reaction tube contamination determination unit 7-3 in Example 3, and a notification unit 8.

  The input unit 1 receives various commands and measurement conditions from an operator. As the input unit 1, a pointing device such as a mouse or a trackball, a selection device such as a switch button, or an input device such as a keyboard can be used as appropriate.

The measurement condition setting unit 2 sets measurement conditions in accordance with instructions from the operator via the input unit 1. The set measurement conditions are supplied to the dispensing mechanism control unit 3. In the reaction tube contamination determination processing according to this embodiment, only the test solution needs to be measured, and there is no need to mix the sample and the reagent. Therefore, when performing the dirt determination process, an order (dummy order) dedicated to the dirt determination process is set. The photometric parameters according to the present embodiment are as follows, for example. Other parameters can be arbitrarily set.
Mode: End Up
Wavelength: 804nm
Metering point: 30-33
Calibration mode: Abs
The dispensing mechanism control unit 3 controls the operation of each part of the dispensing mechanism 4 according to the measurement conditions supplied from the measurement condition setting unit 2. In the present embodiment, the dispensing mechanism control unit 3 controls each part of the dispensing mechanism 4 so that each part of the dispensing mechanism 4 operates according to the dummy order.

  The analysis mechanism 4 has a reaction disk 11. The reaction disk 11 holds a plurality of reaction tubes 10 arranged on the circumference. The reaction disk 11 repeats rotation and stop in a certain cycle. The reaction disk 11 rotates by one turn and one cell in one cycle.

  A sample disk 13 is disposed in the vicinity of the reaction disk 11. The sample disk 13 holds a sample container 15 for containing a sample. The sample disk 13 rotates so that a specific sample container 15 is positioned at a predetermined sample suction position. In the present embodiment, an arbitrary solution, for example, ion-exchanged water is used as a dummy sample.

  A first reagent storage 17 is arranged inside the reaction disk 11. The first reagent storage 17 holds a plurality of reagent containers 19 in which a first reagent that selectively reacts with each measurement item of a sample is accommodated. The first reagent container 19 rotates so that the specific reagent container 19 is positioned at a predetermined first reagent suction position. In this embodiment, an arbitrary solution, for example, ion-exchanged water is used as the dummy first reagent.

  In the vicinity of the reaction disk 40, the second reagent storage 21 is arranged. The second reagent storage 21 holds a plurality of reagent containers 23 in which second reagents corresponding to the first reagent are accommodated. The second reagent container 21 rotates so that the specific second reagent container 23 is positioned at a predetermined second reagent suction position. In this embodiment, an arbitrary solution, for example, ion-exchanged water is used as the dummy second reagent.

  A sample arm 25 is disposed between the reaction disk 11 and the sample disk 13. A sample probe 27 is attached to the tip of the sample arm 25. In the case of the dummy order, the sample arm 25 places the sample probe 27 at the sample suction position on the sample disk 13 and sucks the sample in the sample container 15 placed at the sample suction position by a predetermined amount. When the sample is inhaled, the sample arm 25 raises the sample probe 27 and rotates the sample probe 27 along with the rotation start to the cleaning pool 29 arranged between the reaction disk 11 and the sample disk 13. The sample is moved to the cleaning pool 29.

  A first reagent arm 31 is disposed near the outer periphery of the reaction disk 11. A first reagent probe 33 is attached to the tip of the first reagent arm 31. In the case of the dummy order, the first reagent arm 31 arranges the first reagent probe 33 at the first reagent inhalation position on the first reagent storage 17, and the first reagent in the reagent container 19 disposed at the first reagent inhalation position. The reagent is inhaled by a predetermined amount. When the first reagent is inhaled, the first reagent arm 31 raises the first reagent probe 33 and rotates the first reagent probe 33 along the rotation start, and is arranged near the outer periphery of the reaction disk 40. It moves to the washing | cleaning pool 35, and makes a 1st reagent discharge to this washing | cleaning pool 35. FIG.

  A second reagent arm 37 is disposed between the reaction disk 17 and the second reagent storage 21. A second reagent probe 39 is attached to the tip of the second reagent arm 37. In the case of the dummy order, the second reagent arm 37 arranges the second reagent probe 39 at the second reagent inhalation position on the second reagent storage 21, and within the second reagent container 23 arranged at the second reagent inhalation position. A predetermined amount of the second reagent is aspirated. When the second reagent is inhaled, the second reagent arm 37 raises the second reagent probe 39 and rotates the second reagent probe 39 along with the rotation activation, and the second reagent storage 21 and the reaction disk 11 Is moved to the cleaning pool 41 in between, and the second reagent is discharged into the cleaning pool 41.

  A stirring arm 43 is disposed near the outer periphery of the reaction disk 11. A stirring bar 45 is attached to the tip of the stirring arm 43. In the case of the dummy order, the stirring arm 43 is stopped because it is not necessary to stir the test solution in the reaction tube 10.

  While each part of the dispensing mechanism 4 is operating as described above, the operator manually dispenses a test solution having a substantially minimum reaction liquid amount into the reaction tube 10 to be subjected to the contamination determination. All test solutions to be dispensed by hand are of the same type. The kind of test solution is not particularly limited. However, in order to specifically carry out the following description, the test solution is assumed to be a solution having a light absorptivity greater than zero, and specifically, an aqueous copper sulfate solution that is one of the dye solutions. The substantially minimum amount of reaction solution is the minimum amount of reaction solution guaranteed by the manufacturer or in the vicinity thereof.

  A photometric unit 5 is provided inside the reaction disk 11. The photometry unit 5 measures the test solution having a substantially minimum liquid amount via the reaction tube 10. Specifically, the photometry unit 5 includes an irradiation unit 52 and a detection unit 54. The irradiation unit 52 irradiates a photometric beam to the reaction tube 10 passing through the photometric position of the reaction disk 11. The reaction tube 10 contains a test solution having a substantially minimum reaction liquid amount manually dispensed by an operator. The detection unit 54 detects a photometric beam irradiated by the irradiation unit 52 and transmitted through the reaction tube 10 through the reaction tube 10. The detected intensity data of the photometric beam is supplied to the absorbance calculation unit 6.

The absorbance calculation unit 6 calculates the absorbance of the test solution based on the intensity of the photometric beam supplied from the photometry unit 5. The absorbance is calculated from the intensity I0 of the incident light and the intensity I of the transmitted light based on the following (1). The calculated absorbance data is supplied to the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7.
Absorbance (Abs) = log (I0 / I) (1)
As described above, the liquid level of the test solution in the dirty reaction tube (hereinafter referred to as a contaminated reaction tube) is within the clean reaction tube (hereinafter referred to as a non-contaminated reaction tube). It is lower than the liquid level of the test solution. Therefore, when photometrically measuring the test solution of the substantially minimum reaction solution, the volume of the test solution that transmits the photometric beam is smaller in the case of passing through the contaminated reaction tube than in the case of passing through the non-contaminated reaction tube. Further, when the test solution is photometrically measured through the contamination reaction tube, the absorbance varies depending on the light absorption rate of the dirt attached to the contamination reaction tube. That is, a stable absorbance cannot be obtained even if the test solution is photometrically measured through a contaminated reaction tube. In other words, the absorbance obtained through the contaminated reaction tube varies statistically.

  The reaction tube contamination determination unit 7 determines whether or not the reaction tube containing the test solution is dirty based on the absorbance supplied from the absorbance calculation unit. More specifically, the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7 determines whether or not the reaction tube is dirty depending on whether or not the absorbance varies statistically. When it is determined that the reaction tube is dirty, the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7 supplies the notification unit 8 with a signal indicating that the reaction tube is dirty (hereinafter referred to as a contamination signal). When it is determined that the reaction tube is not dirty, the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7 supplies a signal indicating that the reaction tube is not dirty (hereinafter referred to as “no contamination signal”) to the notification unit 8. Details of the processing of the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7 will be described later.

  When the notification unit 8 receives a signal indicating that there is a contamination from the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7, the notification unit 8 notifies the operator that the reaction tube is dirty. As a specific method of notification, there is a method of displaying a sentence that the reaction tube is dirty on the display equipped in the automatic analyzer, and that the reaction tube is dirty through the speaker equipped in the automatic analyzer. There is a method of outputting sound. Similarly, when the notification unit 8 receives the no-stain signal from the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7, the notification unit 8 notifies the operator of information that the reaction tube is not dirty via a display or a speaker.

  Hereinafter, the details of the determination process of the reaction tube contamination according to the present embodiment will be described in Examples 1 to 3.

  In Example 1, if the minimum reaction liquid volume guaranteed by the manufacturer is 80 μL, for example, the minimum reaction liquid volume is 70 μL, which is 10 μL less than 80 μL. The operator dispenses 70 μL of the test solution into each of the plurality of reaction tubes 10 on the reaction disk 11 that repeatedly stops and rotates. When the reaction tube 10 passes the photometry position by the rotation of the reaction disk 11, the photometry unit 5 measures the test solution via the reaction tube 10. In this way, the photometric unit 5 outputs the intensity of a plurality of transmitted photometric beams respectively corresponding to the plurality of reaction tubes 10. Data on the intensity of the plurality of photometric beams is supplied to the absorbance calculation unit 6. The absorbance calculation unit 6 calculates a plurality of absorbance data corresponding to each of the plurality of reaction tubes according to the equation (1). Each absorbance data is supplied to the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7-1 according to the first embodiment. The reaction tube contamination determination unit 7-1 includes an average absorbance calculation unit 71, a variation index calculation unit 73, a contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75, and a contamination reaction tube identification unit 77.

The average absorbance calculation unit 71 calculates an average value of a plurality of absorbances supplied from the absorbance calculation unit 6 (hereinafter referred to as average absorbance). The variation index calculation unit 73 calculates an index indicating the degree of variation of the plurality of absorbances based on the average absorbance calculated by the average absorbance calculation unit 6 and the plurality of absorbances. Specifically, the variation index calculation unit 73 calculates a standard deviation, which is one of indexes indicating the degree of variation, based on the average absorbance and the plurality of absorbances. When the standard deviation is calculated, the variation index calculation unit 73 calculates a CV% value, which is one of the indexes indicating the degree of variation, based on the calculated average absorbance and standard deviation. The CV% value is defined by the following equation (2) using the average value and the standard deviation. As shown in the equation (2), the CV% value is an index obtained by multiplying a plurality of absorbance variation coefficients by 100.
CV% value = (standard deviation / average value) × 100 (2)
The contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 compares the CV% value calculated by the variation index calculation unit 73 with a preset first threshold value. When the CV% value is larger than the first threshold value, the contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 determines that there is a contamination reaction tube among the plurality of reaction tubes, and notifies the presence signal 8 and the contamination reaction tube identification unit. 77. On the other hand, when the CV% value is smaller than the first threshold value, the contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 determines that there is no contamination reaction tube among the plurality of reaction tubes, and supplies a notification signal 8 to the notification unit 8.

  The contamination reaction tube specifying unit 77 receives the contamination signal from the contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 and specifies the contamination reaction tube from the plurality of reaction tubes. Specifically, the contamination reaction tube specifying unit 77 compares each absorbance with a preset second threshold value, and specifies an absorbance that is larger or smaller than the second threshold value from the plurality of absorbances. The contamination reaction tube specifying unit 77 determines that the reaction tube derived from the specified absorbance is a contamination reaction tube, and supplies the identification information of the contamination reaction tube to the notification unit 8. The second threshold is set automatically or by the user via the input unit 1 according to, for example, the average absorbance of a dirt-free group, which will be described later, the average absorbance of a group with dirt, and the average absorbance of both groups. The second threshold value may be set based on the average absorbance obtained by the current determination process or the average absorbance obtained by the past dirt determination process. The second threshold may be an arbitrary value input via the input unit 1 by the operator.

  The notification unit 8 receives the supply of a signal with dirt from the contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 and notifies the operator that there is a contamination reaction tube among the plurality of reaction tubes via a display or a speaker. At this time, the notification unit 8 may display a list (for example, a list shown in FIG. 4 described later) of a plurality of reaction tube numbers and absorbances corresponding thereto on the display. By displaying the list in this way, the operator can specify the absorbance deviating from the average absorbance, that is, the contaminated reaction tube. In addition, the notification unit 8 receives the supply of a clean signal from the contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 and notifies the operator that there are no contamination reaction tubes in the plurality of reaction tubes via a display or a speaker. Further, the notification unit 8 receives supply of identification information of the contamination reaction tube from the contamination reaction tube specifying unit 77 and displays the supplied identification information on the display.

  Next, the result of the experiment for verifying the effect of Example 1 will be described. The experiment compares a group that includes at least one contaminated reaction tube (hereinafter referred to as a dirty group) with a group that does not include a contaminated reaction tube at all (hereinafter referred to as a clean group). Was done. Each group contains 10 reaction tubes.

  FIG. 4 is a table showing a list of determination results for the absorbance, average absorbance, standard deviation, and presence / absence of a contaminated reaction tube in the dirt group and the dirt-free group. FIG. 5 is a graph of the absorbance of the dirt group and the dirt-free group in FIG. In addition, the 1st threshold value for determining the presence or absence of a contamination reaction tube was CV% value = 0.2%. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the absorbance corresponding to the reaction tube F, the reaction tube H, and the reaction tube J of the dirty group is far from the average absorbance. Accordingly, the standard deviation and the CV% value of the dirt-free group are higher than the standard deviation and the CV% value of the dirt-free group, respectively. Specifically, since there is almost no variation in the 10 absorbances of the dirt-free group, the standard deviation is almost 0, and the CV% value is well below the threshold (0.2%). On the other hand, since the absorbance of the smudged group varies, the CV% value is significantly higher than the threshold and is 4% or more. For this reason, the dirty group was correctly determined as “having a contaminated reaction tube”, and the non-dirty group was correctly determined as “having no contaminated reaction tube”.

  Further, the second threshold value for specifying the contamination reaction tube is set to a value obtained by adding a margin to the average absorbance 1.1507 of the non-contamination group. In the case of FIG. 4, the value of the margin is preferably set to +0.02, that is, the second threshold is set to 1.1707. By setting the second threshold in this way, the contaminated reaction tube specifying unit 77 can automatically specify the contaminated reaction tubes (reaction tubes F, H, J) from among the plurality of reaction tubes in the dirty group.

  With the above-described configuration, the automatic analyzer according to Example 1 does not statistically vary the absorbance derived from the test solution with the approximately minimum reaction liquid amount in the non-contaminated reaction tube, and the test for the approximately minimum reaction solution amount within the contaminated reaction tube. Whether or not the reaction tube is dirty is determined using the fact that the absorbance derived from the solution varies statistically. For this determination, the automatic analyzer according to the first embodiment analyzes a plurality of absorbances using a statistical method, and identifies the absorbances that statistically vary from the plurality of absorbances without omission. As described above, the automatic analyzer according to Example 1 uses relative evaluation instead of absolute evaluation of absorbance as in the Cuvette Integrity Check described in Patent Document 1. That is, the automatic analyzer according to the first embodiment determines that the reaction tube is contaminated as long as it is dirty as compared with other reaction tubes, even if the reaction tube is not objectively strongly contaminated. can do. Thus, the automatic analyzer according to the first embodiment realizes a dirt determination process that is highly sensitive to dirt in the reaction tube.

  As described above, the automatic analyzer according to Example 1 determined the presence or absence of the contaminated reaction tube based on the CV% value. However, Example 1 is not limited to this. For example, the presence / absence of a contaminated reaction tube may be determined based on an index indicating another statistical variation degree such as a CV value or a standard deviation instead of the CV% value.

  The automatic analyzer according to Example 2 determines the contamination of the reaction tube by using the absorbance of the test solution having a sufficient amount necessary for photometry and the absorbance of the test solution having the minimum amount. Here, the sufficient liquid volume is a liquid volume larger than the minimum reaction liquid volume. Therefore, when photometry is performed through a reaction tube into which a sufficient amount of test solution has been dispensed, there is almost no adverse effect on the absorbance due to contamination of the reaction tube and the accompanying decrease in liquid level. In the following description, components having substantially the same functions as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is provided only when necessary.

  The photometry unit 5 measures the test solution having a substantially minimum liquid amount accommodated in each reaction tube, and outputs the intensity of the photometry beam. The photometric unit 5 measures the amount of the test solution stored in each reaction tube and outputs the intensity of the photometric beam. The test solution having a substantially minimum amount and the test solution having a sufficient amount are of the same type. Either the measurement order of the test solution having the substantially minimum liquid amount or the measurement order of the test solution having a sufficient liquid amount may be first or after. The same order may be used.

  The absorbance calculation unit 6 calculates a plurality of absorbances based on the intensities of the plurality of photometric beams related to the test solution having a substantially minimum liquid amount from the photometry unit 5. In addition, the absorbance calculation unit 6 calculates a plurality of absorbances based on the intensities of the plurality of photometric beams related to the test solution having a sufficient amount from the photometry unit 5.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7-2 according to the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 6, the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7-2 includes an average absorbance calculation unit 71, an accuracy calculation unit 79, a contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 ′, and a contamination reaction tube identification unit 77. The average value calculation unit 71 calculates the average absorbance of the test solution having a sufficient liquid volume and the average absorbance of the test solution having the minimum reaction liquid volume. The accuracy calculation unit 79 calculates the ratio between the average absorbance of the sufficient liquid volume and the average absorbance of the minimum reaction liquid volume. Specifically, the accuracy calculation unit 79 calculates the ratio of the minimum reaction liquid amount to the average absorbance with respect to the average absorbance of the sufficient liquid amount, that is, the accuracy.

  The contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 ′ determines whether or not the accuracy calculated by the accuracy calculation unit is within a preset threshold range. When the accuracy is not within the threshold range, the contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 ′ determines that there is a contamination reaction tube among the plurality of reaction tubes, and notifies the presence of the contamination signal to the notification unit 8 and the contamination reaction tube identification unit 77. To supply. On the other hand, when the accuracy is within the threshold range, the contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 ′ determines that there is no contamination reaction tube among the plurality of reaction tubes, and supplies a clean signal to the notification unit 8.

  The contamination reaction tube specifying unit 77 receives the supply of the contamination signal from the contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 ′, and specifies the contamination reaction tube from the plurality of reaction tubes as in the first embodiment.

  Next, the result of an experiment for verifying the effect of Example 2 will be described. The experiment was carried out using a 70 μL soiled and unsoiled group, which is approximately the minimum reaction volume, and a 120 μL group (hereinafter referred to as a reference group) that is a sufficiently liquid volume. Each group contains 10 reaction tubes.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a list of determination results of absorbance, average value, accuracy, and presence / absence of a contamination reaction tube in each of the dirty group, the non-dirty group, and the reference group. The threshold range was 99% to 101%. In addition, the reaction tubes F, H, and J of the dirty group are dirty. As shown in FIG. 7, the absorbance of the reference group and the absorbance of the dirt-free group are not statistically varied, and the average absorbance is substantially the same. Therefore, the accuracy of the dirt-free group is 99.9%, which is within the threshold range. Therefore, the dirt-free group was correctly determined as “no contamination reaction tube”. On the other hand, the absorbance of the contaminated group varies statistically due to contamination of the reaction tube and accompanying liquid level drop. Therefore, the accuracy of the dirty group is 102.7%, which is outside the threshold range. Therefore, the dirty group was correctly determined as “contaminated reaction tube”.

  With the above-described configuration, the automatic analyzer according to Example 2 statistically varies the absorbance of the test solution with the minimum reaction amount in the contaminated reaction tube, but statistically determines the absorbance of the test solution with a sufficient amount of reaction solution in the contaminated reaction tube. It is determined whether or not the reaction tube is dirty by utilizing the fact that it does not vary. Specifically, the statistical variation is evaluated by the ratio of the average absorbance of the test solution having the minimum reaction volume to the average absorbance of the test solution having a sufficient reaction volume. Thus, the automatic analyzer according to the second embodiment realizes a dirt determination process that is highly sensitive to dirt in the reaction tube.

  The measurement conditions of Example 3 are the same as the measurement conditions of Example 1. In Example 3, it is determined whether or not the reaction tube is dirty by using a statistical variation (drift) of absorbance with the passage of time (time course). In the following description, components having substantially the same functions as those in the first and second embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is provided only when necessary.

  While the reaction disk is rotating, the photometry unit 5 repeatedly measures the test solution in the reaction tube every time the reaction tube passes the photometry position, and repeatedly outputs the intensity of the transmitted photometry beam. The number of metering is repeated by the number of metering points. The absorbance calculation unit 6 repeatedly calculates the absorbance based on the intensity of the photometric beam repeatedly output from the photometry unit 5. Each absorbance is associated with the identification information of the reaction tube from which it is derived.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7-3 according to the third embodiment. The reaction tube contamination determination unit 7-3 includes an average absorbance calculation unit 71, an accuracy calculation unit 79, a contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 ', and a contamination reaction tube identification unit 77'. The contamination reaction tube specifying unit 77 ′ receives supply of a signal with contamination from the contamination reaction tube presence / absence determination unit 75 ′, and selects a contamination reaction tube from a plurality of reaction tubes according to the degree of variation in absorbance over time. Identify. Specifically, the contamination reaction tube specifying unit 77 ′ determines whether or not there is a drift in the absorbance time course for each reaction tube. When it is determined that there is a drift, the contaminated reaction tube specifying unit 77 ′ determines that the reaction tube is dirty. When it is determined that there is no drift, the contaminated reaction tube specifying unit 77 ′ determines that the reaction tube is not dirty. As a result, the contaminated reaction tube is identified from the plurality of reaction tubes.

  Next, the result of an experiment for verifying the effect of Example 3 will be described. The experiment was performed using a minimum reaction volume of 80 μL of the soiled group and a sufficient volume of 120 μL of the reference group.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a list of determination results for the absorbance, average absorbance, accuracy, and presence / absence of a contaminated reaction tube in each of the dirty group and the reference group. The threshold range was 99% to 101% as in the second embodiment. Further, the reaction tubes E, F, and H of the dirty group are dirty. As shown in FIG. 9, the accuracy of the dirty group is 138%, which is outside the threshold range. Therefore, the dirty group was correctly determined as “contaminated reaction tube”.

  FIG. 10 is a graph showing the time course of the absorbance of the test solution accommodated in the reaction tube D which is a non-contaminated reaction tube. FIG. 11 is a graph showing the time course of the absorbance of the test solution accommodated in the reaction tube E which is a contaminated reaction tube. In this graph, the vertical axis is the absorbance and the horizontal axis is the photometric point. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, no drift is observed in the time course when the reaction tube is not contaminated, and drift is observed in the time course when the reaction tube is contaminated. Therefore, when there is a drift in the time course, it can be determined that the reaction tube is dirty, and when there is no drift in the time course, it can be determined that the reaction tube is not dirty. The presence or absence of drift is determined, for example, by the contamination reaction tube specifying unit 77 ′ as follows.

  First, the maximum absorbance and the minimum absorbance in the time course are specified, and the difference between the specified maximum absorbance and the minimum absorbance is calculated. Then, the calculated difference is compared with a predetermined third threshold value. If the difference is greater than or equal to the third threshold, it is determined that there is a drift in the time course, that is, the reaction tube is dirty. When the difference is equal to or smaller than the third threshold value, it is determined that there is no drift in the time course, that is, the reaction tube is not dirty. This third threshold can be arbitrarily set via the input unit 1.

  According to the above configuration, in the automatic analyzer according to Example 3, the absorbance of the test solution having the minimum amount of reaction solution in the non-contaminated reaction tube does not statistically vary with time, and the minimum amount of reaction solution in the contamination reaction tube. Whether or not the reaction tube is dirty is determined using the fact that the absorbance of the test solution varies statistically over time. Thus, the automatic analyzer according to the third embodiment realizes a dirt determination process that is highly sensitive to dirt in the reaction tube.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage.

(Modification)
In Examples 1, 2, and 3, the automatic analyzer is operated according to a dummy order. Therefore, the operator must manually dispense the test liquid into the reaction tube after grasping the movement of each part while each part of the dispensing mechanism 4 is operating.

  The automatic analyzer according to the modification of the present embodiment has a hand dispensing mode. The manual dispensing mode is a mode for the operator to easily perform manual dispensing. Hereinafter, this manual dispensing mode will be described.

  In the manual dispensing mode, when the reaction tube number is designated by the operator via the input unit 1, the reaction disk automatically sets the reaction tube corresponding to the number designated by the operator to a predetermined position (typically Specifically, it is rotated to the front side of the housing. After the rotation, the analysis mechanism including the reaction disk is temporarily stopped. During this time, the operator manually dispenses the test solution into the reaction tube. After the manual dispensing is finished, the operator inputs a continuation instruction via the input unit 1. When a continuation instruction is given via the input unit, the dispensing mechanism 4 is operated again by the dispensing mechanism control unit 3. As a result, the manually dispensed test solution is photometrically measured by the photometric unit 5, and the reaction tube contamination determination unit 7 performs the reaction tube contamination determination process shown in the first, second, or third embodiment.

  Thus, the automatic analyzer according to the modified example can realize a dirt determination process with high sensitivity to dirt on the reaction tube while reducing the burden of manual dispensing by the operator.

  In addition, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of components disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, constituent elements over different embodiments may be appropriately combined.

  As described above, according to the present invention, in an automatic analyzer that determines whether or not a reaction tube is dirty, it is possible to improve the sensitivity of the reaction tube to contamination.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Input part, 2 ... Measurement condition setting part, 3 ... Dispensing mechanism control part, 4 ... Dispensing mechanism, 5 ... Photometry part, 6 ... Absorbance calculation part, 7 ... Reaction tube dirt determination part, 8 ... Notification part

Claims (5)

An irradiating unit for irradiating a photometric beam toward a reaction tube containing a solution of a substantially minimum liquid amount necessary for photometry;
A detection unit for detecting a photometric beam irradiated from the irradiation unit and transmitted through the solution;
A determination unit for determining whether or not the reaction tube is dirty based on the intensity of the detected photometric beam;
An automatic analyzer comprising:   The automatic analyzer according to claim 1, further comprising a notification unit that notifies information indicating that the reaction tube is dirty when it is determined that the reaction tube is dirty. A photometry unit for measuring a plurality of solutions of a substantially minimum amount required for photometry, respectively housed in a plurality of reaction tubes;
An absorbance calculation unit for calculating a plurality of absorbances for the plurality of solutions based on an output from the photometry unit;
A variation index calculation unit that calculates an index indicating a statistical variation degree based on the plurality of calculated absorbances;
A determination unit that determines whether or not there is a dirty reaction tube among the plurality of reaction tubes according to the calculated index;
An automatic analyzer comprising: Measure a plurality of solutions with a substantially minimum amount of liquid necessary for photometry contained in a plurality of first reaction tubes, and obtain a plurality of solutions with a sufficient amount for photometry contained in a plurality of second reaction tubes. A metering unit for metering;
A plurality of first absorbances related to a plurality of solutions having a substantially minimum liquid amount are calculated based on the output from the photometry unit, and a plurality of second absorbances related to a plurality of solutions having a sufficient liquid amount are calculated based on the output from the photometry unit. A calculation unit for calculating,
Determining whether there is a dirty reaction tube in the plurality of first reaction tubes based on the calculated average value of the plurality of first absorbances and the average value of the plurality of second absorbances And
An automatic analyzer comprising: A metering unit for repeatedly metering a solution of approximately the minimum amount of liquid necessary for metering, contained in a reaction tube;
A calculation unit that repeatedly calculates the absorbance based on the output from the photometry unit;
A determination unit for determining whether or not the reaction tube is dirty according to the degree of variation in absorbance calculated repeatedly;
An automatic analyzer comprising:

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