JP4659104B2 - Medical examination cassette - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a medical examination cassette used for preparation of a microscope specimen for medical examination, and more specifically, when a space portion forming projection is provided on the surface of a lid, and cassettes are stacked or juxtaposed to perform chemical treatment. The present invention relates to a medical examination cassette having improved chemical liquid permeability.

  A conventional cassette of this type includes, for example, a cassette body 1 made of a chemical-resistant synthetic resin and a lid 2 as shown in FIG. The cassette body 1 is a rectangular container having an open upper surface, and has a plurality of through holes 3 at the bottom, and a plate-shaped recording portion 4 that is inclined outwardly toward the bottom on the outer side of one side wall of the short side. It is provided with a locking groove 5 on the inside and a locking portion 6 on the outside of the other side wall.

  The lid 2 is a detachable plate-like body having a large number of through holes 7 on the plate surface, ribs 8 fitted into the cassette body along the outer peripheral surface of the back surface, and one side on the short side. Has an inclined locking piece 9 that fits and engages along the back surface of the recording portion 4 of the locking groove 5, and has a slightly larger protruding edge on the other side of the short side than the cassette body 1. 10 and a locking piece 11 that engages with the engaging portion 6 (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In order to prepare a microscope specimen using the cassette, first, the collected specimen 12 is accommodated in the cassette body 1 and the lid 2 is attached, and the name of the subject is recorded in the recording unit 4. The inclined locking piece 9 of the lid 2 engages with the locking groove 5 of the cassette body 1, and the locking piece 11 engages with the locking portion 6 of the cassette body 1 to fix the lid 2.

Subsequently, the specimen 12 is washed with water through the through-holes 7 and 3, then the moisture of the specimen 12 is removed with alcohol, and affinity with liquid paraffin to be described later is imparted with xylene.
Next, although not shown in the figure, a cassette block is obtained in which paraffin embedded with the specimen 12 adheres to the bottom of the cassette body 1, and the portion where the paraffin specimen 12 is embedded is sliced with a microtome, and the sliced slice is stained. The microscope specimen is obtained by performing other predetermined processing.

  However, a plurality of cassettes are usually stacked or juxtaposed, and the above-described chemical treatment is performed. However, in the case of the conventional cassette as shown in FIG. Since the surface of the cassette lid is in close contact, the chemical solution that has passed through the through hole 7 of the upper or adjacent cassette lid 2 and the through hole 3 of the cassette body 1 is directly passed through the lower hole or the through hole 7 of the adjacent cassette lid 2. After flowing into the cassette body 1 and processing the specimen 12, the operation of flowing further into the cassette body 1 from the through hole 3 of the cassette body 1 through the lower hole or the adjacent cassette lid 2 is repeated. Therefore, the permeation of the chemical solution is almost only in one direction, and it is difficult to say that the chemical treatment is sufficiently efficient.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, as shown in FIG. 8, when the identification display 13 protrudes outside the surface of the lid (four corners in FIG. 8) and the cassettes are stacked or juxtaposed, the identification display 13 has been reported to improve the permeability of the chemical solution by forming a space portion between the cassettes by 13 and allowing the chemical solution to flow into the cassette also from this space portion, but as described above, only the outside of the lid 2 is reported. 9 to 11, as shown in FIGS. 9 to 11, as shown in FIGS. 9 to 11, the upper and lower or left and right sides of the upper cassette are shifted from the protrusions of the lower cassette, as shown in FIGS. It cannot slide down and cannot fulfill the function of forming the space portion, and therefore the chemical permeability is inevitably lowered. In addition, since the size of the space portion S is different between the side that has dropped off and the side that has not dropped off, the amount of chemical liquid permeation is uneven, and as a result, uniform chemical liquid processing becomes impossible. I'm staring. Furthermore, these problems also occur when chemical treatment is performed by juxtaposing cassettes.

JP 2002-5800 A (see FIGS. 29 and 1)

  The present invention eliminates the above-described drawbacks, and even if the stacked cassettes or the juxtaposed cassettes are displaced, a space is formed between the cassettes, and the stacked or juxtaposed not only from one direction. It is an object of the present invention to provide a medical examination cassette in which chemical treatment is uniform and treatment efficiency is improved by flowing a chemical from between cassettes.

  In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a cassette body made of a chemical-resistant material and a plate-like lid, and the cassette body opens an upper surface, In a medical examination cassette having a large number of through holes, the lid being detachably attached to the cassette body, and having a large number of through holes, a vertical container on the surface of the lid. The medical test cassette is characterized in that the projection for forming the space portion is provided over the horizontal center line, and the auxiliary projection is provided in each of the four regions defined by the projection for forming the space portion.

  The invention according to claim 2 of the present invention is the cassette for medical examination according to claim 1 in which the protrusions for forming the space portion are provided intermittently.

  The invention according to claim 3 of the present invention is the cassette for medical examination according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the cassette body is partitioned into a plurality of small chambers by a partition wall.

  The invention according to claim 4 of the present study is the cassette for medical examination according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the lid and / or the cassette body is made of a chemical-resistant transparent material.

  The invention according to claim 5 of the present investigation is the cassette for medical examination according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the transparent material is polypropylene resin.

  The invention according to claim 6 of the present study is the cassette for medical examination according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the transparent material is a polyester resin.

  According to the cassette for medical examination of the present invention, when stacked or juxtaposed, even if a large deviation of, for example, 50% occurs between the upper and lower cassettes, the cassette and cassette are separated from each other by the space forming protrusion provided on the lid. Since a uniform space (space) is formed and maintained in between, the chemical solution permeability, diffusivity, and contact with the specimen during chemical treatment are dramatically improved and uniform and efficient chemical solution Processing is possible.

FIG. 1A is a perspective view showing a cassette in the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a perspective view showing the cassette in the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a sectional view in the length direction of the cassette according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a side view showing a state where the cassette is displaced in the length direction. FIG. 4 is a side view showing a state in which the cassette is shifted in the length direction. FIG. 5 is a side view showing a state where the cassette is displaced in the width direction. FIG. 6 is a view showing a state in which the cassette is displaced in the length direction, the width direction, and the oblique direction from the upper surface. FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing an example of a conventional cassette. FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing another example of a conventional cassette. FIG. 9 is a side view showing a state where the cassette is displaced in the length direction. FIG. 10 is a side view showing a state in which the cassette is shifted in the opposite length direction. FIG. 11 is a side view showing a state where the cassette is displaced in the width direction.

  The present invention comprises a cassette body made of a chemical-resistant material and a lid, the cassette body is a rectangular container having an open upper surface and capable of accommodating a specimen, having a large number of through holes, the lid being In a medical examination cassette which is detachably attached to the cassette body and has a large number of through holes, a space forming protrusion is provided along the vertical and horizontal center lines of the surface of the lid, and a space forming protrusion Auxiliary protrusions are provided in each of the four areas defined by The space forming protrusion and the auxiliary protrusion are for forming a space for allowing a chemical solution to pass between the cassettes when the cassettes are stacked or juxtaposed.

  In the present invention, the space portion forming projections are provided in a cross shape over the vertical and horizontal center lines of the surface of the lid of the plate-like body. In addition, auxiliary projections are provided in each of the four regions defined by the space forming projections.

  The space forming protrusions may be provided continuously or intermittently, but are preferably provided intermittently from the viewpoint of not impeding the fluidity of the chemical solution in the direction parallel to the surface of the lid.

  The space shape projection is preferably provided between the through holes so as not to block the through hole of the lid. The protrusion for forming the space portion may have a rod-like shape such as a semicircular shape, a semi-elliptical shape, a semi-rectangular shape, and a semi-polygonal cross section when provided continuously, and a hemispherical shape when provided intermittently. A semi-elliptical spherical shape, a rectangular columnar shape, or the like may be arranged in rows at appropriate intervals.

  The height of the space forming projection and the auxiliary projection is preferably at least 0.3 mm, more preferably at least 0.5 mm. When the space portion forming projection is lower than 0.3 mm, the space portion formed between the cassettes becomes small, and the effect of improving the permeability of the chemical solution becomes insufficient. Note that the upper limit of the height of the space forming projections cannot be defined unconditionally depending on the size of the cassette, but if it is too high, it takes up space when stacked or juxtaposed, reducing processing efficiency and handling. Deteriorate. Therefore, about 10 mm is preferable.

The material of the cassette of the present invention is preferably a synthetic resin or metal that is resistant to chemicals used for specimen preparation, and examples thereof include polyacetal, polyamide, polycarbonate, polyester, polypropylene, and stainless steel.
Also, the cassette body can be made of resin and the lid can be made of metal, and vice versa.

  Also, either the cassette body, the lid, or both are made of a transparent material, so that if only the lid is made of a transparent material, from the outside of the lid, and if only the cassette body is made of a transparent material When the cassette body and the lid are both made of a transparent material from the outside of the cassette body (side wall or bottom), the state of the internal sample can be visually recognized from the outside of both the cassette body and the lid. That is, the status of the sample contained in the cassette (size, number, shape, color, location within the cassette body, and the location of the filter paper when the sample is contained with the filter paper, the direction of the sample on the filter paper, etc.) This makes it possible to clearly see the image, to make the preparation of the microscope specimen more efficient and reliable, and to obtain a highly accurate inspection result.

  As the transparent material, for example, a polypropylene resin and a polyester (particularly PET) resin are preferable, and a polypropylene resin is particularly preferable from the viewpoint of excellent chemical resistance and low cost.

  Furthermore, by dividing the cassette body with a partition wall into a plurality of small chambers, a plurality of specimens can be processed at the same time, which is extremely efficient. However, as described above, when an existing device such as a microtome is used, the size of the cassette is restricted by itself. Therefore, when a plurality of small chambers are provided, about 2 to 9 are preferable. If the number exceeds nine, the size of the chamber becomes too small, and the size of the specimen to be accommodated and processed may be limited, which may be inconvenient.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the embodiment.

Example 1
As shown in FIGS. 1A and 2, the medical examination cassette of Example 1 includes a cassette body 1 made of a chemical resistant material and a plate-like lid 2. A plate-shaped recording unit 4 having a top surface opened and capable of accommodating a specimen, having a large number of through holes 3, and inclined outwardly toward the bottom on the outer side of one side wall of the short side. It is provided with a locking groove 5 on the inside and a locking portion 6 on the outside of the other side wall.

  On the other hand, the lid 2 has a large number of through holes 7, ribs 8 that fit into the cassette body 1 along the outer peripheral surface of the back surface, and recording on the locking groove 5 on one side of the short side. An inclined locking piece 9 that fits and engages along the back surface of the portion 4, and has a protruding edge 10 that is slightly larger than the cassette body 1 on the other side, and engages with the locking portion 6. It has a stop piece 11.

  Further, on the surface of the lid 2, a space forming protrusion 14 is formed on the rib of the through hole 7 near the vertical center line, and the protrusion is formed on the rib of the through hole 7 near the horizontal center line. 14, the space forming protrusions 15 are intermittently provided in a cross shape, forming a cross-shaped space forming protrusion as a whole and partitioned by the cross-shaped space forming protrusions 14, 15. One auxiliary projection 21 is provided in each of the four regions.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, two partition walls 16 are erected and three small chambers are formed in the cassette body 1 so that the collected specimens can be divided and put. If necessary, six or nine small chambers can be provided by providing one or two horizontal partition walls 17 in the long side direction of the cassette body 1 so as to be orthogonal to the two partition walls 16.

As shown in FIGS. 3 to 6, the space portion forming projections 14 and 15 are provided in a cross shape so as to form a cross shape along the longitudinal and lateral center lines of the surface of the lid 2. Thus, even if the stacked or juxtaposed cassettes are displaced in the long side direction or the short side direction, the space forming projections 14 and 15 and the auxiliary projections 21 are interposed between the cassettes. As a result, a space S corresponding to the height of the protrusions 14 and 15 and the auxiliary protrusion 21 is formed, so that it is not one direction or non-uniformity only from the vertical direction as in the conventional cassette, but from the horizontal direction. Thus, it is possible to flow in and permeate a uniform chemical solution, and to achieve a uniform and efficient chemical treatment effect on the specimen.
In FIG. 6, the shifts in the long side direction, the short side direction, and the oblique direction are respectively indicated by dashed lines A1, B1, C1, D1, wavy lines A2, B2, C2, D2, and alternate long and two short dashes lines A3, B3, Indicated by C3 and D3.
As described above, the space portion forming protrusions 14 and 15 are provided so as to cross over the vertical and horizontal center lines of the lid 2, and the auxiliary protrusions 21 are respectively provided in the four regions defined by the space portion forming protrusions. By providing a uniform space portion S between cassettes can be formed and secured even if they are displaced by nearly 50% in any of the long side direction, short side direction, and diagonal direction, and uniform inflow and permeation of the chemical solution is possible. The chemical solution is uniformly and efficiently processed, and the inspection accuracy is improved.

Example 2
As shown in FIG. 1B, the medical examination cassette of the second embodiment is almost the same as the first embodiment although the direction of the auxiliary protrusion 21 is 90 degrees different from that of the first embodiment.

  According to the present invention, a space forming protrusion is provided at least in the vertical and horizontal central portions of the surface of the lid of the plate-like body of the medical examination cassette, and auxiliary protrusions are respectively provided in four regions defined by the space forming protrusion. 21. In particular, the space portion forming projections are intermittently provided. However, the present invention is not limited to the cassette having the shape shown in the above embodiment, Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to all cassettes including the cassette body.

  The cassette for medical examination according to the present invention does not fall off from the projection for forming the space provided on the upper surface of the lid of the plate-like body even if a considerable deviation occurs in the stacked and juxtaposed cassettes. It is possible to form and maintain a uniform space between the upper and lower cassettes that are placed side by side or between adjacent cassettes that are juxtaposed, and the permeability, diffusion, and contact with the specimen are dramatically improved. Thus, uniform and efficient chemical treatment can be performed, and inspection accuracy can be improved.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cassette main body 2 Cover 3 Through-hole 4 Recording part 5 Locking groove 6 Locking part 7 Through-hole 8 Rib 9 Inclined locking piece 10 Projection edge 11 Locking piece 12 Specimen 13 Identification display 14 Space part formation protrusion 15 Projection for forming space part 16 Partition wall 17 Horizontal partition wall 21 Auxiliary projection

Claims (6)

  A cassette body made of a chemical-resistant material and a plate-shaped lid, a rectangular container having an open upper surface and capable of accommodating a specimen, the cassette body having a large number of through holes, and the lid In a medical examination cassette that is detachably attached to the cassette body and has a large number of through holes, a space portion forming protrusion is provided over the vertical and horizontal center lines of the surface of the lid, and a space portion forming protrusion is provided. A medical examination cassette, wherein auxiliary projections are provided in each of four regions defined by the projections.   The medical examination cassette according to claim 1, wherein the space forming projections are provided intermittently.   The cassette for medical examination according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the cassette body is partitioned into a plurality of small chambers by a partition wall.   The cassette for medical examination according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the lid and / or the cassette body is made of a chemical-resistant transparent material.   The cassette for medical examination according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the transparent material is a polypropylene resin.   The cassette for medical examination according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the transparent material is a polyester resin.

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