JP2014153283A - Method for processing slide glass and cover glass - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and a device for processing slide glass enabling reuse of slide glass and cover glass.SOLUTION: A processing device 200 is provided, which includes slide glass and a processing tank for storing a processing rack 100 in order to separate and recover cover glass attached to the slide glass. The processing device 200 accumulates a processing liquid for processing the slide glass attached with the cover glass, and applies heat and pressure to the processing liquid in the processing tank. The processing rack 100 is immersed into the processing liquid, and includes a plurality of pocket members for storing the slide glass attached with the cover glass. The processing rack processes the slide glass attached with the cover glass placed inside a pocket of the pocket member under heat and pressure, thereby separating the slide glass from the cover glass in a non-destructive manner and safely.

Description

  The present invention relates to a processing method and a processing apparatus for removing a specimen, an encapsulant and the like from a slide glass and a cover glass used for a pathological tissue specimen and reusing them.

  The pathological tissue specimen is usually produced using a slide glass and a cover glass. Non-Patent Documents 1 to 3 describe a method for preparing a pathological tissue specimen. A pathological specimen is obtained by performing a formalin fixation, alcohol dehydration, intermediate agent permeation, and paraffin permeation steps on a tissue piece collected from a human body. Is then sliced with a microtome, placed on a glass slide to remove paraffin, stained, permeated with xylene, and sealed with an encapsulant to obtain a pathological tissue specimen. The pathological tissue specimen prepared in this way is called a paraffin-embedded specimen. Moreover, in order to shorten the specimen preparation time in the intraoperative rapid diagnosis, the process from fixation to paraffin block preparation may be performed in place of the freezing process (Non-Patent Document 4). In addition, as a method of collecting pathological tissue, there is a cytodiagnosis in which cells collected by scraping or needles are stained to diagnose whether the cancer is based on the presence or absence of mutation of the cells themselves. Is mounted on a glass slide, fixed, stained, and sealed to prepare a specimen (Non-patent Document 5). In addition, a known method for preparing a paraffin-embedded specimen is described in, for example, Patent Document 1, a known method for preparing a frozen specimen is described in, for example, Patent Document 2, and a known method for preparing a cytological specimen is described in, for example, Patent Document 3. Yes.

  Histopathological specimens and cytological specimens are usually stored semipermanently and are used for pathological research, education, statistics, and the like. However, if it is determined that there is almost no need for rediagnosis due to the storage location, it may be disposed of. In addition, when preparing a specimen, for example, when placing a sliced tissue on a slide glass, the slide glass may be replaced with a new one due to a failure such as picking up bubbles or dust together. Depending on the disease and diagnostic method, many types of staining methods are used properly. is there. If it is necessary to redo the preparation of such pathological tissue specimens, the number of glass slides used for the redo is at most several per patient, but hundreds of specimens per day. If it is an inspection room for manufacturing, the number will increase to a considerable number.

Since the slide glass and cover glass are usually assumed to be permanently stored with respect to the prepared pathological tissue specimen, it is not considered to be washed and reused without being discarded, and should be reused. This is because it is difficult to separate the slide glass and the cover glass because they are firmly attached with paraffin or the like. It is also known to separate the slide glass from the cover glass. In such cases, the damaged cover glass is repaired or the same specimen is stained using a different staining method. This method is specially applied when it is necessary to carry out even if it takes time and money, and specifically, the following method is applied.
(1) Immerse in xylene and let stand until it peels off naturally (normal temperature 2-3 days, 60-70 ° C. overnight) (Non-patent Document 6).
(2) Immerse in xylene at 62 to 65 ° C. for 40 minutes or more and peel off with gummed tape. (Non-patent document 7).
(3) Scatter with a flame and peel off with a spatula (Non-Patent Document 8).

  Xylene is frequently used because xylene is often used as a solvent for tissue penetration and encapsulant. Even if the slide glass and cover glass are separated with xylene, the specimen is not removed, so it is common to immerse it in a physicochemical or clinical laboratory detergent with a specimen removal function for several hours to several days. Apply a treatment such as rubbing with a brush with a detergent.

  In addition, an alkaline detergent or the like mainly containing a surfactant may be used together with xylene or the like (Patent Document 4). In addition, in order to remove specimens from physics and chemistry equipment and medical equipment, a small cleaning device using ultrasonic waves is also used. In the case of a cleaning device for medical equipment, the device configuration is complicated (Patent Document 5), and is generally expensive.

  In addition, even if the slide glass and the cover glass are separated by the above-described processing, paraffin is attached to the slide glass when it fails due to thin cutting or the like. Although paraffin cannot be removed with an alkaline detergent, it easily re-adheres, and there is a problem that it must be additionally removed with a solvent used for deparaffinization such as xylene and limonene.

  In addition, some slide glasses for pathological tissue specimens are frosted at one end so that patient information and specimen numbers can be described. Frost processing is processing which grinds glass and roughens it. Since the frosted part may become transparent and difficult to see when immersed in a solvent used for specimen preparation, it is common to use a slide glass that has been color frosted by urethane printing or the like for pathological tissue specimens. . In addition, patient information and specimen numbers tend to be obscured when written with a pencil, and it is difficult to erase them easily with solvents and reagents used in specimen preparation. Therefore, pens and printers using aqueous pigments are used. Regarding the description of the frost portion, “erasing” is not considered in order to prevent mistakes such as a mistake, but if it is erased, a method of dissolving and removing with a solvent such as xylene is applied. However, urethane printing is a laborious operation because it may be peeled off if it is scratched by a sharp tip or handled under chemicals or heat conditions that damage urethane.

  In some cases, a mark is handwritten on the frosted portion, and after the specimen is completed, a paper label on which the facility name is printed, or a paper or resin label produced by a printing device linked to the inspection system is attached. Since the specimens must be preserved permanently, they are not considered to be removed. Paper labels can be peeled off if they are immersed in the solvent used for specimen preparation for a few days to overnight, but resin labels with strong glue need to be removed by hand after immersion in the solvent. In addition, if the slide glass or cover glass is washed and dried, a bucket, a dyeing vat, a dyeing basket, and a slide stand are required. In some cases, a household washing basket or container is used. It was also known as a time-consuming work.

  FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of a conventionally used slide glass and cover glass separation / regeneration method. The process begins at step 400 and applies a fixation that separates the glass slide and the cover glass at step 401. This step is a step of immersing the pathological tissue specimen in a tank containing a solvent and a detergent, and waiting until the slide glass and the cover glass are naturally separated, and usually requires 2 to 3 days. When the slide glass and the cover glass are separated in Step 401, the slide glass is processed in Steps 402 to 404, and the cover glass is processed in Steps 408 to 412, respectively. After the processing is completed in Step 413, the glass is reused. Possible glass slides and cover glass are collected.

  In the process shown in FIG. 4, the total processing time is generally required for several days, and the efficiency of recycling and the number of processes are not realistic, and the slide glass and cover glass regeneration from the pathological tissue specimen is not practical. It was not possible to be a realistic process.

  As described above, since it takes time and cost to reuse, unnecessary glass slides and cover glasses are usually discarded as infectious waste. At this time, infectious waste must be incinerated, melted, and disinfected in a facility such as a medical organization (Non-Patent Document 9). For the processing for this purpose, for example, a processing apparatus has been developed that sterilizes and reduces the amount of odorless and smokeless materials, and further enables automatic packaging of waste processed products (Patent Document 6). However, the purpose of this processing apparatus is to crush the input material (waste material) and reduce its weight, so that it is not possible to reuse the slide glass and the cover glass. When such a process cannot be performed in the facility, a contract is concluded in advance based on a contract standard defined by law, and the contract is outsourced (Non-Patent Document 9). As described above, an efficient processing method for reusing the slide glass or cover glass used for the pathological tissue specimen has not been known so far, and the cost for disposal has been high.

  As described above, in the pathological tissue specimen, “clean glass” that can be used up to now has been discarded, and there has been a problem that it is a waste from the viewpoint of resource saving and energy saving. Moreover, even if it is disposed of, in the case of infectious waste, there is a problem that disposal requires a lot of labor and cost.

  Even if it was reused, it took time and effort to separate the slide glass and the cover glass, and it was necessary to master the technique. Blowing flammable materials with a fire may cause burns or fire, and may cause problems that the separated cover glass cannot be reused if it is cracked or flawed. Even if you try to process with a commercially available ultrasonic cleaner, there are problems such as sample removal, marker erasure / removal, label paper removal, etc. There was no practical method that combines reusability for separating glass and processing efficiency.

JP 2009-121906 A JP 2008-286694 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-027682 JP 2004-026989 A JP 2010-115223 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-131531

Hiroshi Shinoda et al. “Pathological Specimen Preparation Method I” Medical Technology, 14: 33-38, 1986 Hiroshi Shinoda et al. “Pathological Specimen Preparation Method II”, Medical Technology, 14: 135-140, 1986 Hiroshi Shinoda et al. “Pathological tissue specimen preparation method III”, Medical Technology, 14: 319-325, 1986 Satoshi Suzuki et al. “How to Make Frozen Specimens and Various Staining Methods” Medical Technology Vol. 18, 379-384, 1990 Noboru Tanaka et al., “Cytodiagnosis Textbooks: Basics and Practices”, Kakudo Yagi Shoten, 1983, pp. 81-97 Cytologists Association Aichi Prefectural Branch Cytology Technical Data “Method of Immunostaining with Cytological Specimens” (http://act.umin.ne.jp/imuno.pdf) Eiichi Harada, Katsutoshi Miura, Hiroshi Tsutsumi “Rapid Cover Peeling Method” Pathology and Clinic 21 216-1307, 2003 Toshiaki Hino “How to quickly remove cover glass that cannot be fixed” Medical Technology, Volume 359, 1992 Ministry of the Environment Minister's Secretariat Waste & Recycling Department “Infectious Waste Disposal Manual Based on Waste Disposal Law” 2009

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the prior art, and an object thereof is to provide a processing method and a processing apparatus for separating a slide glass and a cover glass used as a pathological tissue specimen. .

According to the present invention,
A step of immersing the slide glass and the cover glass attached to the slide glass in the treatment liquid;
There is provided a processing method including a step of applying heat and pressure to the slide glass in a processing liquid, and a step of collecting the slide glass and the cover glass peeled from the slide glass.

  The heating temperature may be 121 ° C. or higher. Furthermore, the pressure of the pressurization can be 2 atm or more.

  The treatment liquid of the present invention may be water, and the step of applying heat and pressure preferably doubles as a sterilization step.

Furthermore, according to the present invention,
A processing apparatus for separating and collecting a slide glass and a cover glass attached to the slide glass, the processing apparatus comprising:
A treatment tank for accumulating a treatment liquid for treating the slide glass to which the cover glass is attached, and applying heat and pressure to the treatment liquid;
And a processing rack including a plurality of pocket members that are immersed in the processing liquid and accommodate a slide glass to which a cover glass is attached.

  The heating temperature may be 121 ° C. or higher. Furthermore, the pressure of the pressurization can be 2 atm or more.

  The processing rack includes a column member for self-supporting in the processing tank, and a plurality of pockets that are attached in a circumferential direction by stay members from the column member, and accommodate the slide glass with the cover glass attached in an upright state. And can be processed by heating and pressurizing with the processing liquid inside the pocket member.

  The present invention heats and pressurizes the microscope specimen to which the slide glass and the cover glass are attached, thereby denaturing the components of the encapsulant present between the slide glass and the cover glass, and removing the cover glass from the slide glass. Treatment that sterilizes infectious bacteria and their spores that can be detached in about 60 minutes, and can remain on the tissue attached to the slide glass by applying high temperature and high pressure. Methods and processing devices can be provided. Moreover, the processing apparatus of the present invention enables simultaneous processing and mass processing of a plurality of sheets by using a processing rack configured to be efficiently applied to peel the cover glass from the slide glass.

The perspective view of the processing rack 100 used for the processing method of this embodiment. Schematic of the processing apparatus 200 of this embodiment. Schematic of the processing method using the processing apparatus of this embodiment. The flowchart of the separation and reproduction | regeneration method of the slide glass and cover glass which are used conventionally.

  Hereinafter, although this invention is demonstrated based on embodiment, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned later. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a processing rack 100 used in the processing method of the present embodiment. The processing rack 100 connects a bottom plate 101 having rigidity such as stainless steel and fluorine resin and a column member 102 by fastening means such as bolts and nuts, and a processing tank (not shown) of a processing apparatus called an autoclave described later. It is designed to be able to install independently.

  A plurality of stay members 104 each having a pocket member 103 at the tip are attached to the pillar member 102 having a tree-like shape in which the pocket member 103 and the pillar member 102 are connected to each other by a stay member 104 or the like. The stay member 104 is adjusted in position in the circumferential direction and in the height direction so that the pocket member 103 at the tip does not overlap.

  The pocket member 103 includes a pocket 103a for accommodating a pathological specimen such as a slide glass with a cover glass attached thereto. In addition, a plurality of mesh or knitted openings are formed at the bottom of the pocket 103a, so that the treated water can be efficiently introduced into the pocket 103a of the treatment rack 100 and the treated water can be easily cut off. The maximum length of the stay member 104 is configured such that the processing rack 100 is completely accommodated in the processing tank. doing. The stay member 104 is attached so that the pocket member 103 is arranged on the circumference when the processing rack 100 is viewed from above with the main shaft as the center.

  A handle 105 is disposed on the upper part of the column member 102 via a circular mounting member to improve the handleability of the processing rack 100 in the processing tank.

  FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a processing apparatus 200 used in this embodiment. The processing apparatus 200 is an autoclave, and a casing 201 is provided with a processing tank 203 and an operation panel 202. The treatment tank 203 is filled with treated water (such as distilled water). After the processing rack 100 shown in FIG. 1 is disposed in the processing water in the processing tank 203, the lid 204 is placed on the processing tank 203, the lever is rotated to fix the lid 204, and heating and pressurization are performed. Make it possible.

  Thereafter, the processing apparatus 200 is activated to start heating and pressurization, and separation of the slide glass and the cover glass is started. The heating and pressing time can be appropriately set in consideration of the separability of the cover glass. However, when the cover glass is fixed with paraffin, such as a normal pathological specimen, the temperature is about 105 to 140 ° C. It can be peeled off in about 60 minutes under a pressure of about 2 MPa to 0.22 MPa, including temperature rise and cooling time. At this time, it is preferable to maintain the temperature at 121 ° C. or higher, which is a temperature necessary for sterilization, for about 20 minutes. The processing temperature and processing pressure can be appropriately set according to the purpose.

  Provided a processing method and a processing apparatus for sterilizing infectious bacteria that can remain in a tissue attached to a slide glass and their spores by setting the pressure condition that allows a temperature of approximately 121 ° C. or higher when a sterilization effect is expected. can do.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a state in which the processing rack 100 is arranged in the processing tank 203 of the processing apparatus 200 in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3, the pocket member 103 of the processing rack 100 is configured to fit within the inner diameter of the processing tank 203, and the user can easily install the processing rack 100 on the processing tank 203 by the handle 105. And can be taken out.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the processing rack includes at least six pocket members 103, and can process at least six slide glasses at a time. Further, if the pocket 103a has a size that can accommodate a plurality of slide glasses, a larger number of slide glasses can be processed simultaneously, and the processing efficiency is remarkably improved. In addition, in the present embodiment, the slide glass and the cover glass are automatically separated by heating and pressurizing in the processing liquid, so that a process in which an operator or a worker applies force directly to the glass becomes unnecessary. As a result, the cover glass can be safely separated from the slide glass in a non-destructive manner.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, even when the slide glass is a pathological specimen or the like, it can be sterilized by application of high temperature and high pressure during the separation process. Can be omitted, and an efficient glass slide regeneration process can be provided.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the time and labor for separating the slide glass and the cover glass are reduced, and further labor for skill acquisition is eliminated, and further burns and fires are not caused. Without causing the problem that the separated cover glass cannot be reused due to damage caused by damage or flaws, the sample can be removed, the marker erased / removed, even if the label paper is attached, It is possible to provide a practical method and an apparatus therefor that can recycle the cover glass in a reusable manner and have high processing efficiency.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Processing rack 101 Bottom plate 102 Column member 103 Pocket member 103a Pocket 104 Stay member 105 Handle 200 Processing apparatus 201 Case 202 Operation panel 203 Processing tank 204 Cover

Claims (6)

A step of immersing the slide glass and the cover glass attached to the slide glass in the treatment liquid;
A method for treating a slide glass, comprising: applying heat and pressure to the slide glass in a treatment liquid; and collecting the slide glass and the cover glass peeled from the slide glass.   The processing method according to claim 1, wherein the step of applying heat and pressure is applied at 121 ° C. or higher and 0.2 MPa or higher.   The treatment method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the treatment liquid of the present invention can be water, and the step of applying heat and pressure also serves as a sterilization step. A processing apparatus for separating and collecting a slide glass and a cover glass attached to the slide glass, the processing apparatus comprising:
A treatment tank for accumulating a treatment liquid for treating the slide glass to which the cover glass is attached, and applying heat and pressure to the treatment liquid;
A treatment rack comprising a plurality of pocket members that are immersed in the treatment liquid and that contain a slide glass to which a cover glass is attached.   The processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the heating temperature is 121 ° C. or higher, and the pressurizing pressure is 0.2 MPa or higher.   The processing rack is accommodated in a state in which a plurality of pillar members for allowing the processing rack to stand independently in the treatment tank and a slide glass attached to the cover glass are installed in a circumferential direction by stay members from the pillar members. The processing apparatus according to claim 4, comprising the pocket member.