JP2775108B2 - Liquid foreign matter detector - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a foreign substance such as fibrin floating in a liquid such as serum, and a foreign substance in a liquid for automatically detecting blood information such as jaundice, hemolysis and milky milk. It relates to a detection device.

[Conventional technology and its problems]

As is well known, foreign substances such as fibrin may be mixed in serum used for biochemical analysis or immunological analysis.

When a blood test is performed by an automatic analyzer even though such a foreign substance is present in the serum,
Since the foreign matter is sucked into the pipette of the dispenser together with the serum, the foreign matter easily causes clogging of the pipette, and has a problem that maintenance work is complicated.
Since a device for automatically detecting this kind of foreign matter does not exist in the field, conventionally, it has to be exclusively visually checked, and there is a problem that this operation is very complicated. Was.

The present invention has been devised in view of the above situation, and its purpose is to automatically detect foreign substances in a liquid without manual operation in advance, such as a pipette at the time of dispensing work. The object of the present invention is to provide a foreign-substance detecting device in liquid which can check clogging in advance in advance, and further obtains serum information such as jaundice, hemolysis, milky milk by converting the irradiation light to a predetermined wavelength. is there.

[Configuration to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, in a liquid foreign matter detection device according to the present invention, a light source, a unit for irradiating light from the light source into the liquid, and forming an image of reflected light of the irradiated light Means for converting the density of the formed image into an electric signal, and means for moving the object point of the irradiation light in the vertical direction in the liquid. The present invention is characterized in that information on foreign substances and / or serum present in the apparatus is detected by a change in an electric signal generated when the object point of the irradiation light moves up and down in the liquid.

[Action]

Therefore, in the liquid foreign matter detection device according to the present invention, the object point of the irradiation light is moved in the vertical direction in the liquid, and the object point of the irradiation light is moved in the liquid by a change in an electric signal generated accordingly. It is configured to detect serum information such as existing foreign substances and jaundice, hemolysis, and milky milk.

Furthermore, the wavelength of irradiation light emitted from the light source in correspondence with foreign matter such as fibrin and red blood cells and white blood cells floating in serum and / or serum information such as jaundice, hemolysis and milky milk corresponding to the foreign matter and serum information. Can be detected by a single device.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the liquid foreign matter detection device A according to this embodiment includes a detection unit B, a driving device (not shown), and a control unit C.

The detecting unit B includes a light source 1, a lens 3 for irradiating the irradiation light L emitted from the light source 1 in the serum 2, and a lens 5 for forming an image obtained by the irradiation on the light receiving element surface 4.
And a light receiving element 6 for converting the density of an image formed on the light receiving element surface 4 into an electric signal, and a filter F for converting the irradiation light L into a wavelength corresponding to the property of the foreign matter. .

Reference numeral 7 in the drawing denotes a container such as a blood collection tube in which the serum 2 and the blood clot 8 are defined by the separating agent 9 and stored.

The filter F is similar to a known filter that converts to a predetermined wavelength corresponding to the color of the serum 2 in which foreign substances such as fibrin, leukocytes or red blood cells are suspended, or in which jaundice, hemolysis, milky milk, etc. are mixed. Is used, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted here. Of course, a configuration may be employed in which the conversion of the filter is automatically converted by a known mechanism.

In this way, the irradiation light L emitted from the light source 1 and converted into light of a predetermined wavelength by the filter F through the collimator lens 10 is converted in the direction of serum by the half mirror 11 and irradiated by the lens 3. And the surface of the serum 2 is irradiated. These collimator lens 10, half mirror 11,
The lens 3 constitutes the means for irradiating the liquid with light from the light source as described in the claims. The filter F converts light emitted from the light source 1 into a wavelength corresponding to the color of the serum 2 as described above, and is provided as necessary. That is, in performing various analyses, a reagent corresponding to the analysis is dropped into the collected blood. For this reason, the color of the serum in the container 7 has changed to a color corresponding to the reagent used. The structure of the present embodiment is provided with the above-mentioned filter F so that a single device can cope with any of the serums that have been changed in color according to various reagents. Only for serum of a specific color that can be handled by the wavelength of the light emitted from the light source 1,
The filter F may be omitted if a foreign substance or the like is detected.

Further, the image at the position of the irradiated object point a illuminates the observation object such as serum brightly, and monitors the state at that time.
Similar to the well-known image forming principle of a microscope, the light is condensed at the image forming point on the light receiving element surface 4 via the lenses 3 and 5 and is formed in the state shown in FIG. The lenses 3 and 5 and the half mirror 11 constitute a unit for forming an image of reflected light of the emitted light as described in the claims.

That is, for example, a foreign substance b such as fibrin in the serum 2
Are mixed, the image of the object point a formed on the light receiving element surface 4 is the second image on the light receiving element surface 4 which is the focal point.
As shown in the figure, the amount of received light is large in a region where the foreign matter b does not exist, and in a region where the foreign matter b exists, the shadow shown by the oblique line D becomes dark and the amount of received light is small.

The large number of light receiving elements 6 arranged on the light receiving element surface 4 include:
The magnitude of the amount of light received on the light receiving element surface 4 is detected, and the data is sent to the control unit C. The control unit C processes the output from the light receiving element 6.

That is, the control unit C includes an A / D converter 12 that converts an electric signal output from the light receiving element 6 into a digital signal,
A control device 13 composed of a microcomputer or the like that receives a digital signal from the A / D converter 12 and performs arithmetic processing to detect and confirm the magnitude of light amount, and a control signal output from the control device 13. And a display device 14 including a CRT or the like for displaying the information.

Although not shown, the control device 13 includes an A / D converter 1
An input interface for inputting digital signals from 2 and a program required for processing input signals
ROM and C for performing predetermined arithmetic processing based on the program
PU and RAM for temporarily storing calculation results and data
And an output interface for outputting operation results and control signals of the driving device to the display device 14 and the driving device.

The drive device moves the entirety of the detection unit B along the vertical direction in the liquid as shown in FIG. Of course,
The movement of the detection unit by this driving device, that is, the trajectory of the object point a may be moved in a concave shape as shown in FIG. 3 (A), or as shown in FIG. 3 (B). Alternatively, it may be moved in a “self” shape, or rotated as shown in FIG. Of course, the detection unit B may be fixed, and the container 7 may be moved up and down or rotated.

As the detection unit B moves in the serum 2 as described above, the imaging data of the object point a at each movement point becomes the fourth data.
It is displayed on the display device 14 in a state as shown in the figure.

In FIG. 4, when the foreign substance b does not exist in the serum 2, a shadow of the foreign substance b does not occur, so that a gentle quadratic curve as shown by a line x is obtained. Further, when the foreign substance b is present in the serum 2, a shadow of the foreign substance b is generated, so that a disturbed curve as shown by a line y is obtained. Therefore,
The control device 13 controls the container 7 from which data such as the line y is obtained.
Is checked by displaying, for example, a container number, and the checked container is handled so as to be automatically removed from the dispensing line of the automatic analyzer manually or via a pickup robot.

In the liquid foreign matter detection device according to the present invention, the control device 13 may be configured to simultaneously display the detection data of fibrin, jaundice, and hemolysis on the display device 14.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the present invention moves an object point of irradiation light along a vertical direction in a liquid, and causes a change in an electric signal generated along with the object point to cause foreign matter or the like present in the liquid. Because it is configured to detect serum information such as jaundice, hemolysis, milky milk, etc., it is possible to automatically detect foreign matter and serum information in liquid without manual operation in advance, for example, pipette at the time of dispensing work This is advantageous in that it is suitable for checking clogging in advance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a schematic configuration of a liquid foreign matter detecting device according to one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an image forming state of a light receiving element surface, and FIG. B) (c) is the object point a
And FIG. 4 is a graph showing the presence / absence of a foreign matter. [Explanation of Symbols] A: foreign matter detecting device in liquid B: detecting section C: controlling section D: image forming F: filter 4: light receiving element surface 1: light source 2: serum 3,5 … Lens 4… Light receiving element surface 6… Light receiving element 7… Container a… Object point b… Foreign matter

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A light source, means for irradiating light from the light source into a liquid, means for forming an image of reflected light of the irradiated light, and conversion of the density of the formed image into an electric signal And means for moving the object point of the irradiated light in the vertical direction in the liquid, and the foreign matter and / or serum information present in the liquid is irradiated with the irradiated light. A liquid foreign matter detecting device configured to detect the object point of the light by a change in an electric signal generated when the object point of the light is moved up and down in the liquid.