JP2616359B2 - Blood coagulation analyzer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an analyzer for automatically analyzing a blood coagulation reaction in the field of clinical examination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art To measure a blood coagulation reaction, a sample and a reagent are put in a cell, and the cell is moved to a coagulation reaction measurement site for measurement. Most blood coagulation reaction analyzers have a photometer at the measurement site, which irradiates the cell with measurement light from a light source and detects light scattered by the sample reaction solution with a photodetector.

[0003] In order to increase the processing capability of the blood coagulation reaction analysis, there is an analyzer in which a plurality of measurement sites are provided, and the cells are sequentially transferred to the measurement sites in units of cells of the number of the measurement sites to perform parallel processing. . Further, as another blood coagulation reaction analyzer, there is an apparatus capable of selectively transferring a cell containing a specimen and a reagent to a plurality of measurement sites (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-280572).

[0004]

In a device for fixing a coagulation reaction measurement site and sequentially transferring cells to the site for measurement, since the coagulation reaction time ranges from short to long, the measurement time is long after all. You need to adjust the cycle to the item. Therefore, the processing capacity cannot be increased. Further, in an apparatus capable of selectively transferring a cell to a plurality of measurement sites, a complicated mechanism for moving the cell to a predetermined position each time is required in order to perform sample dispensing, reagent dispensing, and attachment / detachment of the cell. .

[0005] Some measurement items require reagent dispensing only once and others require twice. For example, PT (prothrombin time), FIB (fibrinogen), and TH (thrombotest / hepaplastin test) may be dispensed with one reagent, but APTT (activated partial thromboplastin time) is dispensed with actin in advance, and a predetermined time period. After activation, the triggering reagent must be dispensed.
Therefore, when controlling sample dispensing and reagent dispensing by random access, there may occur a timing at which a reagent must be dispensed to two cells during one cycle. Therefore, the apparatus of the above-mentioned reference, which can selectively transfer cells to a plurality of measurement sites, requires a complicated and high-speed operation of sequentially transferring two cells to the reagent dispensing position within one cycle. Therefore, the cycle time must be increased, which hinders an increase in the processing capacity. The purpose of the present invention is the supply and disposal of cells, sample dispensing,
An object of the present invention is to simplify a mechanism for performing an operation such as dispensing of a reagent and to increase a processing capacity.

[0006]

The present invention comprises a reaction section for detachably holding a plurality of cells, a cell supply / discharge mechanism, a sample dispenser, a reagent dispenser, and a control section for controlling the operation. In the blood coagulation analyzer, the reaction unit includes a photometric module for measuring a coagulation reaction of a sample solution in a cell for each cell, and moves the photometric module to a cell attaching / detaching position, a sample dispensing position, and a reagent dispensing position. The control unit includes at least one operation of each of cell supply, sample supply, cell discharge, and reagent dispensing in one cycle of the operation. And the time from the timing of cell supply or sample dispensing to the reaction section to the dispensing of the first reagent is kept constant irrespective of the measurement item, and the cell to the reaction section is controlled. Supply or sample If the timing of dispensing the first reagent to the sample overlaps with the timing of dispensing the second reagent of another cell into which the sample has already been dispensed, The operation is controlled to shift at least one cycle.

[0007]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment. The reaction section 1 has a disk-shaped table, and the table can be rotated in a reciprocating direction by a drive mechanism not shown in the figure and can be stopped. On the circumference of the table, the photometric module 2
Are arranged at equal intervals.

As shown in FIG. 2, each photometric module 2 detachably holds a cell 20 into which a specimen and a reagent are dispensed, and irradiates the sample liquid in the cell 20 with measurement light. A light source 22 such as an LED, and a photodetector 24 such as a photodiode provided on an axis perpendicular to the incident direction of the measurement light in order to detect scattered light of the measurement light due to the sample liquid. I have.

Returning to FIG. 1, the description will be continued. A cell transfer unit 3 is provided near the reaction unit 1, and the photometer module 2 is located at a position A on the circumference of the table of the reaction unit 1 in the cell transfer unit 3.
There is provided an arm 31 for attaching a cell to or removing the cell from the photometric module 2. Arm 3
Numeral 1 is driven to move to a position A, a position for receiving a cell in the cell supply unit 4, and a position for discarding a cell in the cell discarding unit 5, and to stop the cell. The cell transfer section 3 takes out the cells stored in the cell supply section 4 one by one, transfers the cells to the photometric module at the position A of the reaction section 1 and mounts the cells, or measures the cells at the position A of the reaction section 1 The cell after completion is taken out and discarded in the cell discarding unit 5. In this example, the cell transfer unit 3 has both the function of supplying and discarding cells, but the supply and discarding of cells may be realized by a mechanism such as another arm.

[0010] A sampling probe 6 is provided near the reaction unit 1, aspirates the sample transferred to the position C of the rack type sample transfer unit 7, and detects the light measurement unit module at the position B of the reaction unit 1. Dispense the sample into the cell of. A reagent probe 9 is further provided near the reaction section 1, and a predetermined reagent is aspirated from a plurality of reagents 8 in accordance with a measurement item.
The reagent is dispensed into the cell of the photometric module at the position D of the reaction unit 1. Reference numeral 10 denotes a syringe pump, which is connected to the sampling probe 6 and the reagent probe 9 by piping, and performs a predetermined amount of suction and discharge. An operation unit 11 includes a keyboard, a CRT, a printer, and the like.

A control section is provided for controlling the operation of each section. Next, the operation of the control unit will be described.
FIG. 3 shows the operation by the cell transfer unit 3, the sampling probe 6, the reagent probe 9, and the like, and one cycle is composed of 15 seconds. Each operation of cell supply, sample dispensing, cell discharging, and reagent dispensing is assigned to one cycle, and even if these operations are included, one cycle includes only one operation.

In the sample transfer section 7, the identification information of the sample is attached to the sample container by a bar code or the like, and the identification information of the sample container to be dispensed next is read by a bar code reader or the like, and the measurement item is recognized. You. Thereafter, the sample is transferred to position C. In the reaction unit 1, the open photometric module is moved to the position A, and a new cell is supplied to the photometric module at the position A by the cell transfer unit 3. The photometric module supplied with the cell is transferred to position B,
The sample at the position C of the rack is dispensed by the sampling probe 6 in a predetermined amount.

The photometric module of the cell of the specimen whose measurement has been completed is transferred to the position A of the reaction section 1, and the cells of the photometric module are discarded by the cell transfer section 3 to the cell discard section 5. The cell of the photometric module after a certain period of time from the cell supply or the sample dispensing is transferred to the position D, and the reagent 8 of the measurement item of the sample in the cell is selected and dispensed by the reagent probe 9. The coagulation reaction process is measured by the photometric module simultaneously with the dispensing of the reagent.

In the next cycle, the measurement of the next item is controlled in the same sequence as in the above cycle using another photometric module. In the photometric module, the measurement is continued until the coagulation reaction is completed irrespective of the operations of cell supply and disposal, sample dispensing, and reagent dispensing.

FIG. 4 shows a basic mode for each item. In FIG. 4, the symbol "C" indicates cell supply, "S" indicates sample dispensing,
“A” indicates APTT actin dispensing, “R” indicates trigger reagent dispensing, and “discharge” indicates cell discharge. PT and TH
Performs the same operation. For PT and TH, cells are supplied in the first cycle, the specimen is dispensed, the temperature is maintained for two cycles, and then the trigger reagent is dispensed in the fourth cycle. After the dispensing of the trigger reagent, the measurement is started, and when blood coagulation is detected, the measurement ends and the cell is discharged.

In the FIB, the cell supply and the sample dispensing are performed in the first cycle, and the trigger reagent is dispensed in the fourth cycle after keeping the temperature for two cycles. The measurement time after the dispensing of the trigger reagent is fixed at 90 seconds, and after 90 seconds, the cell is discharged. In the APTT, cell supply and specimen dispensing are performed in the first cycle, and after the same two-cycle heat retention time, actin is dispensed as the first reagent in the fourth cycle. After actin dispensing, after a certain period of 165 seconds for activation, the trigger reagent is dispensed, measurement is started, and the cell is discharged after blood coagulation is detected.

In FIG. 4, the time until the dispensing of the first reagent is constant regardless of the measurement items, such that the first reagent is dispensed in the fourth cycle two cycles after the cycle of cell supply and sample dispensing. There is a feature in that.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the overall operation. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the reaction unit 1 includes 16 photometric modules 2, but in the operation example of FIG. 5, a case in which analysis is performed using 12 measurement modules will be described as an example. As shown in FIG. 4, the first reagent is dispensed after a certain period of time from the cell supply or the sample dispensing. In FIG. 5, the portion shaded in black indicates the timing of the dispensing of the first reagent of the sample and the timing of dispensing the APTT measurement of another sample, but the dispensing of the trigger reagent of the second reagent if the sample dispensing is performed in that cycle. When the timing may overlap in the same cycle, this means that the cell supply and the sample dispensing of the sample are shifted by one cycle. In this way, the timing is controlled so that the need for dispensing the reagent twice during one cycle does not occur.

As to the timing at which the cells are discharged after the measurement is completed, as shown by the (discharge) symbol in FIG. The cell discharge at that timing is controlled so as to be shifted by one cycle. The lower table in FIG. 5 shows the measurement items of the sampled sample and the cell numbers used in association with the upper table.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the sample transfer section 7 is of a rack type, but may be of a turntable type. Although the reaction unit 1 is shown as a turntable type in FIG. 1, the reaction unit 1 may be a type in which photometric modules are connected by a chain and perform a linear motion, or a type in which other types of movement are performed. .

[0021]

According to the present invention, the cell supply / discharge mechanism, the sample dispensing mechanism, and the reagent dispensing mechanism only need to operate at one specific position in the reaction section. Therefore, the entire mechanism is simplified. Since the reaction unit is configured as a photometric module for each cell, parallel processing can be performed by a plurality of photometric modules, and the processing capacity is improved.

Further, by making the time from cell supply or sample dispensing to the first reagent dispensing constant, the cycle of cell supply and sample dispensing is shifted only when analyzing a measurement item requiring the second reagent. In all other cases, all other photometric modules continue to operate, and can be operated efficiently without waste. Furthermore, since the same operation, such as repeating reagent dispensing twice in one cycle, is not included twice or more, the cycle time can be shortened, and the processing capacity is improved in this respect as well.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a photometric module in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of one cycle of operation.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a basic mode of a measurement item.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an overall operation in one embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Reaction part 2 Photometry part module 3 Cell transfer part 4 Cell supply part 5 Cell discard part 6 Sampling probe 7 Sample transfer part 8 Reagent 9 Reagent probe

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A blood coagulation analyzer comprising: a reaction unit for detachably holding a plurality of cells; a cell supply / discharge mechanism; a sample dispenser; a reagent dispenser; and a control unit for controlling operation. The unit includes a photometric module that measures the coagulation reaction of the sample liquid in the cell for each cell, and includes a drive mechanism that moves and stops the photometric module to the cell attaching / detaching position, the sample dispensing position, and the reagent dispensing position. And the control unit includes:
One cycle of operation includes at least one operation of each of cell supply, sample supply, cell discharge, and reagent dispensing,
In addition to controlling the photometric operation to be performed in parallel with those operations, the time from the timing of cell supply or sample dispensing to the reaction section to the first reagent dispensing is kept constant regardless of the measurement item, When the timing of the first reagent dispensing to the sample is predicted from the timing of cell supply or sample dispensing to the sample and the timing of the second reagent dispensing of another cell to which the sample has already been dispensed, A blood coagulation analyzer for controlling the operation so that the dispensing timing of the sample is shifted by at least one cycle.