JP2012021926A - Automated analyzer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automated analyzer capable of improving dispensation accuracy of dispenser associated with dispensation of minute amount and of reducing a reagent volume to be wasted.SOLUTION: An automated analyzer comprises: a nozzle 31 for discharging pretreatment liquid added at the time of pretreatment of reagent or sample; a reagent container 25 for holding the reagent or the pretreatment liquid; a channel for connecting the reagent container 25 and the nozzle 31; a pump mechanism 24 that is arranged in the channel for flowing the reagent or the pretreatment liquid in the channel; a movable valve 28 that is arranged between the pump mechanism 24 and the nozzle 31 for opening and closing the channel; a movable valve 26 that is arranged between the pump mechanism 24 and the reagent container 25 for opening and closing the channel; and a control unit for controlling the movable valve 26, the movable valve 28 and the pump mechanism 24 at the operation time of adding the reagent or the pretreatment liquid to the sample so that the pump mechanism 24 flows the reagent in a discharging direction of the reagent or the pretreatment liquid to the side of the reagent container 25, in association with preliminary operation other than the addition of the reagent or the pretreatment liquid to the sample.

Description

  The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer having a dispensing device for quantitatively or qualitatively analyzing components such as blood and urine, and more particularly to a technique for reducing reagent waste in a reagent dispensing device for dispensing a reagent for analysis. Is.

  Regarding a plurality of reagent dispensing devices of an automatic analyzer, a conventional method is roughly classified into a pipetting method and a dispenser method.

  For example, as described in JP-A-62-44663 (Patent Document 1), the pipetting method is performed by attaching the tip of the probe to the reagent, aspirating the reagent from the tip of the probe using water as a working fluid, and then the probe. Is moved away from the reagent, moved to a place where it is desired to be ejected, and the aspirated reagent is pushed out and ejected from the probe tip. In this method, it is possible to dispense many kinds of reagents using one probe.

  On the other hand, this method reduces the thinning of the reagent due to the diffusion of water and the reagent in the probe, so that extra reagent is sucked, and the amount of reagent consumed per dispensing increases. However, even if the reagent is sucked in excess, the reagent is diluted with water by about 20%. In addition, in order to improve the reagent dispensing accuracy, it is necessary to aspirate the reagent excessively in order to remove the backlash of the syringe pump.

  On the other hand, the dispenser method is described in, for example, JP-A-60-225064 (Patent Document 2), JP-B-1-26509 (Patent Document 3), and JP-A-4-160367 (Patent Document 4). As shown in the figure, for a plurality of reagents, there are nozzles corresponding to the quantity of reagents and reagent syringe pumps corresponding to the quantity of reagents.

  That is, this is a method using a dedicated nozzle and a reagent syringe (or reagent container) for each reagent. In this method, there is no contamination between reagents, and no reagent thinning occurs. However, in a method in which each reagent has a dedicated reagent syringe and the reagent is sucked into the syringe and discharged from the nozzle, the reagent in the syringe pump is wasted.

  Moreover, if the backlash removal of the syringe pump, the return to origin operation of the syringe pump, etc. are introduced in order to improve the reagent dispensing accuracy, the amount of the reagent that is wasted increases. In addition, when a reagent is sucked into the syringe and the reagent is held in the flow path, it is not possible to avoid bubbling of dissolved oxygen. In order to improve the dispensing accuracy of the reagent, the reagent after a certain period of time is discharged. And the amount of reagent that is wasted is even greater.

JP 62-44663 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-225064 Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-226509 JP-A-4-160367

  In the prior art, both the pipetting method and the dispenser method involve reagents that are wasted if accurate dispensing is to be performed. Many reagents are expensive, and the pipetting method has been devised to reduce the amount of reagents that are wasted by discharging the reagent for removing backlash into the container. The extra reagent necessary to reduce the thinning of the reagent due to the diffusion of the reagent cannot be eliminated.

  Even in the dispenser system, in order to minimize a waste reagent, the channel diameter, the channel length, and the arrangement of the units are devised so that the volume of the channel is reduced, but there is a limit.

  In particular, when the dispensed amount is small, the proportion of the reagent that is wasted in the amount of reagent consumed for each dispense inevitably increases, so it is important to suppress this.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic analyzer that can improve the dispensing accuracy of a dispenser with a small amount of dispensing and reduce the amount of wasted reagent.

  The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will be apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

  Of the inventions disclosed in the present application, the outline of typical ones will be briefly described as follows.

  That is, the outline of a typical one is that a nozzle for discharging a pretreatment liquid added at the time of pretreatment of a reagent or a sample, a reagent container for holding the reagent or pretreatment liquid, and a flow connecting the reagent container and the nozzle. A channel, at least one pump mechanism arranged in the channel and flowing the reagent or pretreatment liquid inside the channel, and at least one first arranged between the pump mechanism and the nozzle and opening and closing the channel Movable valve, at least one second movable valve that is arranged between the pump mechanism and the reagent container and opens and closes the flow path, and the first movable valve during the addition of the reagent or the pretreatment liquid to the sample The second movable valve and the pump mechanism are controlled, and the pump mechanism causes the reagent flow in the discharge direction of the reagent or the pretreatment liquid to the reagent container side accompanying the preliminary operation other than the addition of the reagent or the pretreatment liquid to the sample. With a flow control unit It is intended.

  The effects obtained by typical ones of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows.

  That is, the effect obtained by the representative one can improve the dispensing accuracy of the dispenser with the minute amount dispensing, and reduce the amount of the reagent that is wasted.

It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of the automatic analyzer which concerns on one embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the reagent dispensing apparatus of the automatic analyzer which concerns on one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the discharge operation | movement of the reagent of the reagent dispensing apparatus of the automatic analyzer which concerns on one embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that components having the same function are denoted by the same reference symbols throughout the drawings for describing the embodiment, and the repetitive description thereof will be omitted.

  With reference to FIG. 1, the overall configuration of an automatic analyzer according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing the overall configuration of an automatic analyzer according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is equipped with a reagent dispensing device.

  In FIG. 1, the automatic analyzer includes a rack 22 for transporting a sample container 23 and the like, a transport mechanism 21 for transporting the rack 22, a preprocessing disk 14 for preprocessing a sample in the sample container 23, and a reagent bottle 9. It comprises a reagent disk 8 for storing, a reagent disk 11 for storing reagent bottles 12, and a reaction disk 1 for mixing and reacting reaction liquids.

  The operation of each part of the automatic analyzer is controlled by control of a control unit (not shown) or the like.

  The sample is aspirated by the parent sample sampling mechanism 20 and discharged to the pretreatment cell 15 in the pretreatment disk 14, and the pretreatment liquid is added from the pretreatment liquid dispensing mechanism 17 which is a dispenser type reagent dispensing apparatus. The mixture is stirred and mixed by the stirring mechanism 19.

  The pretreatment liquid here refers to a diluent used for diluting the specimen, a reagent used in the pretreatment of the whole blood specimen at the time of measuring hemoglobin A1c, and the like (hereinafter referred to as a reagent). In addition, after stirring and mixing with the pretreatment disk 14, the pretreatment cell 15 that has undergone the dispensing process is washed by the washing mechanism 16.

  The sample pretreated by the pretreatment disk 14 is dispensed by the pretreatment sample sampling mechanism 13 to the reaction cells 2 arranged in the reaction disk 1, and further, the reagent disk 8 and the reagent disk 11 are used as reagents for the pretreatment specimen. The reagent is dispensed and added by the sampling mechanism 7 and the reagent sampling mechanism 10.

  Thereafter, the sample is stirred with the stirring mechanisms 5 and 6 to react the sample with the reagent, and then the absorbance is measured with the spectrophotometer 4. Then, the measurement result is taken into a computer (not shown) and the analysis result is displayed. Further, the reaction cell 2 whose absorbance has been measured is washed by the washing mechanism 3.

  Next, the configuration of the reagent dispensing device of the automatic analyzer according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of the reagent dispensing device of the automatic analyzer according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 2, the reagent dispensing apparatus includes a nozzle 31 for discharging a reagent, a reagent container 25 for holding a reagent, and a flow path (reagent suction flow path 27, reagent discharge flow path 29) connecting the reagent container 25 and the nozzle 31. , Reagent flow path 35), a pump mechanism 24 (for example, a syringe pump that generates a liquid flow by moving a plunger up and down with a motor), which is disposed between the flow paths and moves the internal reagent, pump mechanism 24 and nozzle A movable valve 28 (for example, an electromagnetic valve) that is disposed in the flow path between 31 and opens and closes the flow path, and a reagent suction flow path 27 between the pump mechanism 24 and the reagent container 25, and is movable to open and close the flow path. It comprises a valve 26 (for example, a solenoid valve), a vertical rotation operation mechanism 30 for moving the nozzle 31 to the pretreatment cell 15 of the pretreatment disk 14, and a deaeration device 34 for performing a deaeration process of the reagent.

  The operation of each part of the reagent dispensing apparatus is controlled by control of a control unit (not shown) of the automatic analyzer.

  Next, the operation of the reagent dispensing device of the automatic analyzer according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a reagent discharging operation of the reagent dispensing device of the automatic analyzer according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed that the reagent in the reagent container 25 shown in FIG.

  First, the movable valve 26 is opened at time T0, and then the reagent is sucked from the reagent container 25 by the pump mechanism 24 from time T1 to time T2. At time T3 → T4, the pump mechanism 24 is operated in the discharge direction, and the reagent is caused to flow in the direction of the reagent container 25, whereby the backlash of the pump mechanism 24 is removed.

  At time T5, the movable valve 26 is closed, and then at time T6, the movable valve 28 is opened toward the nozzle 31. Thereafter, the nozzle 31 is moved up and down from T7 to T8 using the vertical rotation mechanism 30 to access the pretreatment cell 15 of the pretreatment disk 14, and the pump mechanism 24 discharges the reagent from time T9 to T10.

  Thereafter, from T11 to T12, the nozzle 31 leaves the preprocessing cell 15 of the preprocessing disk 14, returns to the standby position, and closes the movable valve 28 at time T13. Next, the movable valve 26 is opened at time T14 (or the movable valve 28 is opened in the direction of the reagent flow path 35), and the reagent is caused to flow toward the reagent container 25 using the pump mechanism 24 from time T15 to T16. Return to the initial position.

  After the operation of the pump mechanism 24 is completed, the movable valve 26 is closed (or the movable valve 28 is closed) at time T17, and one cycle of discharge is completed.

  As the above operation shows, the backlash removal of the pump mechanism 24 and the movement to the initial position after completion of dispensing are realized by flowing the reagent into the reagent container 25, and the reagent is actually discharged from the nozzle 31. This is only when the reagent is dispensed into the pretreatment cell 15 of the pretreatment disk 14, and no reagent is wasted in the dispensing cycle.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the pump mechanism 24 causes the reagent flow in the discharge direction accompanying the preliminary operation other than the discharge of the reagent to the pretreatment cell 15 of the pretreatment disk 14 to flow to the reagent container 25 side. It is possible to collect the reagent that is wastedly discharged from the nozzle in the series of dispensing cycles in the reagent container 25.

  In addition, the reagent in the discharge direction of the reagent generated in the process of removing the backlash of the pump mechanism 24 flows the reagent toward the reagent container 25, so that the reagent accompanying the backlash of the pump mechanism 24 is not consumed wastefully. It becomes possible to improve the deterioration of the dispensing accuracy.

  Further, in order to maintain the dispensing accuracy in the pump mechanism 24 that performs precision dispensing, for example, the operation of returning the motor for driving the pump mechanism 24 to the initial position is performed every time, and the pump mechanism 24 is always driven from the fixed position. Although effective, it is possible to set the pump mechanism 24 without wastefully consuming the reagent by flowing the flow in the reagent discharge direction in the process of returning the pump mechanism 24 to the initial position to the reagent container 25 side. It is possible to return to the position and perform reagent dispensing with high accuracy.

  In addition, in the pump mechanism that directly fills the flow path with the reagent, it is necessary to discharge a certain amount of the reagent in order to remove bubbles in the process of filling the flow path with the reagent. The reagent that is wasted can be minimized by flowing the reagent into the reagent container 25 through the reagent channel 35 and filling the channel with the reagent.

  In addition, in the pump mechanism 24 that directly fills the flow path with the reagent, the dissolved oxygen foams when the reagent in the flow path is not used for a long time, which adversely affects the dispensing performance. It is necessary to replace the reagent inside with a new reagent, but the reagent sucked from the reagent suction channel 27 via the deaeration device 34 is flowed to the reagent container 25 through the reagent suction channel 27 (or reagent channel 35), By circulating the reagent in the flow channel, it is possible to prevent the dissolved oxygen from foaming in the flow channel.

  In this way, by controlling the pump mechanism 24 and the movable valves 26 and 28, the reagent consumption amount is such that the reagent amount actually dispensed into the pretreatment cell 15 of the pretreatment disk 14, the pump mechanism 24, It is possible to realize an automatic analyzer having a high-precision dispensing mechanism while minimizing the amount of reagents that are wasted because only the reagents filling the path are used.

  As mentioned above, the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically described based on the embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Needless to say.

  For example, in the present embodiment, the reagent dispensing apparatus is used for adding the pretreatment liquid to the pretreatment cell 15 in the pretreatment disk 14, but the reagent is added to the reaction cell 2 in the reaction disk 1, etc. You may use for.

  The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer equipped with a dispensing device for quantitatively or qualitatively analyzing components such as blood and urine, and can be widely applied to devices and systems equipped with a dispensing mechanism for dispensing a reagent by a dispenser method. .

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Reaction disk, 2 ... Reaction cell, 3 ... Cleaning mechanism, 4 ... Spectrophotometer, 5, 6 ... Agitation mechanism, 7 ... Reagent sampling mechanism, 8 ... Reagent disk, 9 ... Reagent bottle, 10 ... Reagent sampling mechanism, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Reagent disc, 12 ... Reagent bottle, 13 ... Pretreatment sample sampling mechanism, 14 ... Pretreatment disc, 15 ... Pretreatment cell, 16 ... Cleaning mechanism, 17 ... Pretreatment liquid dispensing mechanism, 19 ... Stirring mechanism, 20 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS ... Parent sample sampling mechanism, 21 ... Transport mechanism, 22 ... Rack, 23 ... Sample container, 24 ... Pump mechanism, 25 ... Reagent container, 26, 28 ... Movable valve, 27 ... Reagent suction flow path, 29 ... Reagent discharge flow path , 30... Vertical rotation operation mechanism, 31... Nozzle, 34.

Claims (6)

An automatic analyzer that measures a chemical reaction in the reaction container by reacting a sample and a reagent in the reaction container,
A nozzle for discharging a pretreatment liquid added at the time of pretreatment of the reagent or the sample;
A reagent container for holding the reagent or the pretreatment liquid;
A flow path connecting the reagent container and the nozzle;
At least one pump mechanism disposed in the flow path and flowing the reagent or the pretreatment liquid inside the flow path;
At least one first movable valve disposed between the pump mechanism and the nozzle to open and close the flow path;
At least one second movable valve disposed between the pump mechanism and the reagent container to open and close the flow path;
During the operation of adding the reagent or the pretreatment liquid to the sample, the first movable valve, the second movable valve, and the pump mechanism are controlled, and the pump mechanism is added to the sample. An automatic analyzer comprising: a control unit that causes a reagent flow in a discharge direction of the reagent or the pretreatment liquid to flow to the reagent container side in accordance with a preliminary operation other than the addition of a processing liquid. The automatic analyzer according to claim 1,
An automatic analyzer comprising a reagent flow path connected to the first movable valve and directly connected to the reagent container. The automatic analyzer according to claim 1,
The control unit controls the first movable valve, the second movable valve, and the pump mechanism, and controls the flow in the discharge direction of the reagent or the pretreatment liquid that occurs during the backlash removal process of the pump mechanism. And an automatic analyzer that flows to the reagent container side. The automatic analyzer according to claim 1,
The control unit controls the first movable valve, the second movable valve, and the pump mechanism, and causes a flow in the discharge direction of the reagent generated in the process of returning the pump mechanism to the initial position to the reagent container side. Automatic analyzer characterized by flowing. The automatic analyzer according to claim 2,
The control unit controls the first movable valve, the second movable valve, and the pump mechanism to flow the reagent or the pretreatment liquid sucked from the reagent container to the reagent channel, An automatic analyzer, wherein the flow path is filled with the reagent or the pretreatment liquid. The automatic analyzer according to claim 2,
A degassing device disposed between the pump mechanism and the reagent container;
The control unit controls the first movable valve, the second movable valve, and the pump mechanism, and the reagent or the pretreatment liquid sucked from the reagent container via the degassing device is used as the reagent. An automatic analyzer that flows in a flow path and circulates the reagent or the pretreatment liquid in the flow path.

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