JP5022854B2 - Blood collection method and blood collection coupler - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method of collecting blood from a blood collection tube containing blood and a structure of an instrument used in the method.

  A blood collection tube is used when blood is collected for blood tests. The blood collected in the blood collection tube is separated into blood clot and serum through a process such as centrifugation. When removing serum from a blood collection tube, an instrument called a blood collection tube coupler can be used. The blood collection tube coupler is used by being attached to a blood collection tube.

  Cited Document 1 discloses a blood collection coupler provided with two straight and L-shaped conduits in order to increase blood suction efficiency. Citations 2 and 3 disclose techniques for improving the quantitative accuracy of blood to be sucked by repeating blood suction and air injection through a single tube of a collection needle. Citation 4 discloses a technique in which a suction operation is performed after a target set value for negative pressure is determined when blood is sucked. These prior arts are all related to the amount of blood collected outside the blood collection tube, and have not paid attention to the blood remaining in the blood collection tube.

JP-A-8-320318 JP-A-9-79953 JP-A-7-77527 JP 2001-99848 A

  A blood collection tube that has completed the blood collection process for performing a blood test is usually stored for a predetermined number of days in preparation for the need for retesting without being immediately discarded. If it becomes necessary to perform a reexamination at a later date, it is required that a sufficient amount of blood remains in the blood collection tube so that the reexamination can be performed. However, conventionally, since the amount of blood remaining in the blood collection tube is not particularly controlled, the amount of blood remaining in the blood collection tube is different and does not meet such a demand.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a method for managing the amount of blood remaining in a blood collection tube and an instrument used in the method.

  The present invention includes a selection step of selecting a specific blood collection coupler from a plurality of blood collection couplers having different collection hole heights, and the collection needle of the specific blood collection coupler is sealed with the blood collection tube. A mounting step of mounting the blood collection tube coupler through the stopper, and a collection step of taking blood in the blood collection tube in an inverted state through the collection needle after the mounting step, and the collection hole An amount of blood corresponding to the height of the blood remains in the blood collection tube. According to the above configuration, blood stored in a position lower than the height of the collection hole in the blood collection tube is not taken out to the outside, so that an amount of blood corresponding to the height of the collection hole can remain. That is, in order to manage the amount of blood remaining in the blood collection tube, a specific blood collection coupler may be selected from a plurality of blood collection couplers.

  The present invention is provided at a position that can be discriminated from the outside with a collection needle that has a collection hole for collecting blood from the inside of the collection tube that is pierced through a sealing plug of a collection tube containing blood. And a sign indicating the height of the. According to the above configuration, the height of the sampling hole can be recognized by the label identified from the outside.

  The present invention relates to a blood collection tube coupler set comprising a plurality of blood collection tube couplers, each blood collection tube coupler being pierced through a sealing plug of a blood collection tube containing blood and collecting holes for sucking blood from the inside of the blood collection tube And a plurality of blood collection tube couplers having different heights from each other. According to the above configuration, the voting pipe coupler corresponding to the remaining amount can be selected from the plurality of blood collection couplers according to the height of the collection hole.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the amount of blood remaining in the blood collection tube can be managed.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a main configuration of a blood collection device 10 and a blood collection tube 12 installed thereon. The blood collection device 10 is for aspirating serum from the blood collection tube 12 and collecting it in a collection container 36 disposed below. In addition to serum, liquids such as blood or lymph other than serum can be aspirated.

  The blood collection tube 12 containing the blood to be examined is subjected to a centrifugal separation process before being attached to the blood collection device 10. In the blood collection tube 12, the blood to be examined and the separating agent 16 are stored. The opening of the blood collection tube 12 is sealed with a rubber sealing plug 22. When the centrifugal separation process is performed, the blood clot 14 is precipitated below the blood collection tube 12 through the separating agent 16, and the serum 20 becomes a supernatant and is positioned above. FIG. 1 shows the blood collection tube 12 after the centrifugal separation process in an inverted state. The inverted state does not necessarily have to coincide with the vertical direction, and may be slightly inclined. Since the separating agent 16 is highly viscous, the separating agent 16 and the blood clot 14 are positioned above the figure without falling. That is, a space 18 is generated between the serum 20 and the separating agent 16, and the serum 20 is accumulated with the sealing plug 22 at the bottom.

  The blood collection device 10 includes a blood collection coupler 52 to which a blood collection tube is attached, a coupler base 32 that supports the blood collection coupler, a collection container 36 disposed below the coupler base 32, and an air suction path connected to the coupler base 32. It consists of 40 components. The blood collection tube coupler 52 has a collection needle 26 for penetrating the sealing plug 22. The blood collection tube coupler 52 is held on the coupler base 32 in contact with the packing 34. The packing 34 is for bringing the cylindrical cover 30 of the blood collection tube coupler 52 into close contact and fixing. A collection container 36 is disposed below the coupler table 32. The collection container 36 stores the serum 38 falling from the blood collection tube 12, and the upper opening thereof is in close contact with the packing 34. The inside of the collection container 36 communicates with a pipe line of an air suction path 40 connected to the coupler table 32. A suction pump (not shown) is installed at the tip of the air suction path 40 and is used to make the inside of the air suction path 40 have a negative pressure.

  When the blood collection tube 12 is attached to the blood collection tube coupler 52, the sealing plug 22 is inserted through the collection needle 26. If the pipe of the air suction path 40 is set to a negative pressure using a suction pump in the state where the collection needle 26 is punctured, the internal pressure of the collection container 36 is reduced. Then, the pressure inside the blood collection tube 12 is reduced through the hollow collection needle 26, so that the serum 20 inside the blood collection tube 12 is aspirated through the collection needle 26. The aspirated serum 20 accumulates below the collection container 36. By the way, if the suction pump is operated continuously, the pressure in the blood collection tube 12 will drop too much and it will be difficult to remove serum. Therefore, the operation of the suction pump is temporarily stopped and the pressure is released to atmospheric pressure. Also good. Serum aspiration is processed in the order described above.

  In collecting serum by the above-described method, conventionally, as much serum as necessary for the examination is collected so as not to remain in the blood collection tube as much as possible. However, if it is decided to perform a retest with the same serum at a later date, it is desirable that the serum remain in the blood collection tube. If serum does not remain in the blood collection tube, blood must be provided again from the subject, which is troublesome and causes a burden on the subject. The present invention has been devised so that serum can be intentionally left in the blood collection tube and the remaining amount can be managed in response to the request as described above.

  FIG. 2 is a detailed view of a blood collection coupler 52 which is a configuration example of the present invention. In this specification, the coupler means a coupler or a coupler, and is a functional name of an instrument that couples or couples one member and the other member. The blood collection tube coupler 52 made of a transparent resin includes a bottom wall 46 that holds the collection needle 26 in the center, a cylindrical guide 44 that extends upward from the periphery of the bottom wall 46, and a lower surface of the bottom wall 46. It comprises a cylindrical cover 30 extending downward from the side. The guide 44, the sampling needle 26, and the cover 30 are formed with the same central axis. The guide 44 has a tapered shape that slightly expands toward the upper opening end of the cylinder, and is easy to insert the blood collection tube 12. The height of the guide 44 is set to be higher than the height of the tip of the sampling needle 26 to prevent the finger from touching the tip of the sampling needle 26 directly. Therefore, when changing the setting of the height of the tip of the sampling needle 26, the height of the guide 44 may be changed in conjunction therewith.

  The resin sampling needle 26 has a sampling hole 28 above the bottom wall 46 and a discharge hole 48 below the bottom wall 46. The sampling hole 28 has an oblique cut surface with respect to the central axis of the sampling needle 26, and its cross-sectional shape is elliptical. In the present embodiment, the sampling hole 28 is one elliptical hole, but two sampling holes may be provided, and the shape may be circular. Since the sampling hole 28 is elliptical, the lower end position 42 of the opening of the sampling hole 28 is closest to the bottom wall 46. In FIG. 2, the distance from the upper surface of the bottom wall 46 to the lower end position 42 of the sampling hole 28 is shown as h2. In the present embodiment, the distance h2 is defined as the height of the sampling hole 28 for convenience. Of course, the length or vertical distance from one point of the bottom wall 46 to an arbitrary position related to the sampling hole 28 may be determined as the height of the sampling hole 28. The discharge hole 48 at the other end of the sampling needle 26 is located inside the cylindrical cover 30 below the bottom wall 46. The needle may be made of metal instead of resin. If it is made of metal, it can be easily inserted into the sealing plug by reducing the diameter without reducing the strength of the needle.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which three types of blood collection couplers having different collection needle heights are attached to the blood collection tubes. The blood collection tubes 62, 64, and 66 are attached to the blood collection tube couplers 50, 52, and 54 shown in FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C, respectively. The blood collection couplers 50, 52, and 54 are different from each other. These blood collection tube couplers are prepared for each type, and one of these types is selected and used according to the amount to be left in the blood collection tube. The three types of blood collection couplers 50, 52, and 54 have different collection needle heights h1, h2, and h3, and have a relationship of h1 <h2 <h3. By the way, the components other than the collection needle of each of the blood collection tube couplers 50, 52, 54, that is, the components of the guide, the bottom wall, and the cover, have a common shape. That is, the three types of blood collection couplers 50, 52, and 54 are selectively attached to the same blood collection tube.

  Since all three blood collection tubes have the amount of serum remaining inside determined by the same method, an example will be described using a blood collection tube 64 shown in (B). First, in the first stage of the serum collection process, the blood collection coupler 52 is selected based on the purpose of leaving the serum of the blood collection tube 64 in an intermediate amount. The selected blood collection tube coupler 52 is inserted into the upper surface of the bottom wall 46 until the sealing stopper 22 of the blood collection tube 64 contacts. In this state, when serum is collected by the blood sampling device 10 described above, the serum inside the blood collection tube 64 is sucked until the liquid level of the serum is equal to the height h2 of the collection hole 28 of the collection needle 26. The That is, serum 58 that is not aspirated from the collection hole 28 remains in the blood collection tube 64. That is, an amount of serum 58 corresponding to the height h2 of the collection needle remains. The amount of the remaining serum 58 is accurately determined not by the height h2 of the collection needle but by the length L2 from the sealing plug 22 to the lower end position 42 of the collection hole 28. Further, since the remaining amount of the serum 58 is a volume, it is determined by the inner diameter of the blood collection tube 64 and the inner surface shape of the sealing plug 22 in addition to the length L2, but in the present embodiment, the total number is collected. Since the blood vessel and the sealing plug are common specification parts, they do not cause an error in the remaining amount. Therefore, the remaining amount is substantially proportional to the length L2. Incidentally, the length L2 is a length obtained by subtracting a certain length d corresponding to the thickness of the sealing plug 22 from the height h2 of the sampling needle. That is, since there is a relationship of L2 = h2-d, the remaining amount is finally determined according to the height h2 of the sampling needle.

  As described above, since h1 <h2 <h3, the serum 56 in each blood collection tube 62 has the smallest amount of serum 56 with respect to the remaining amount of serum in each blood collection tube 62, 64, 66. The serum 60 in 66 is the most, and the serum 58 in the blood collection tube 64 is an intermediate amount. The numerical values of the remaining amount include, for example, about 500 μL of the serum 56 of (A), about 1000 μL of the serum 58 of (B), and about 1500 μL of the serum 60 of (C).

  In this way, only by selecting a specific blood collection coupler from a plurality of blood collection couplers, a certain amount of serum as the original specimen is left in accordance with the same serum collection procedure without performing complicated processing. be able to. In addition, by preparing a plurality of types of blood collection couplers having different collection needle heights, the remaining amount of serum can be changed according to the type of blood collection coupler. The blood collection tube that has finished the blood serum collection step in the inverted state as shown in FIG. 3 then proceeds to the serum preservation step.

  FIG. 4 shows a state in which the blood collection tube that has completed the serum blood collection step is stored. A state where a total of 10 blood collection tubes are inserted into the blood collection tube rack 68 is shown. Each blood collection tube is stored with each blood collection coupler attached to its head. The blood collection couplers 50 shown in FIG. 3A are attached to the three blood collection tubes 70, 72, 74 from the right end of FIG. Further, the next three blood collection tubes 76, 78, and 80 are equipped with the blood collection tube coupler 52 shown in FIG. 3B, and further, four blood collection tubes 82, 84, 86 and 88 are equipped with the blood collection coupler 54 shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, when the type of blood collection coupler is the same, the amount of serum remaining in the tube is the same. Since the three blood collection tubes 70, 72, and 74 are equipped with the blood collection tube coupler 50 having the shortest collection needle, the amount of serum collected on the separating agent is small. The three blood collection tubes 76, 78, and 80 have a larger amount of serum than the three blood collection tubes 70, 72, and 74 described above. In addition, the three blood collection tubes 82, 84, 86, 88 have a larger amount of serum than the three blood collection tubes 76, 78, 80 described above. In this way, an amount of serum corresponding to the type of blood collection coupler can be stored. In the application as shown in FIG. 4, the remaining amount is easy to grasp because it is arranged in order according to the type of blood collection coupler, but in the case of irregular arrangement or a large number of blood collection racks are arranged without gaps. In some cases, it may be difficult to determine the remaining amount of serum. In such a situation, the following second configuration example is suitable.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a combination of blood collection couplers as a second configuration example. The three blood collection tube couplers 90, 92, and 94 shown in FIG. 5 are made of resins having different hues. For example, the light orange blood collection coupler 90, the light purple blood collection coupler 92, and the light blue blood collection coupler 94 are distinguished by the color of the material. Of course, specific color designation can be determined as appropriate. You may color by a painting process. According to such an embodiment, the type of the blood collection tube coupler (that is, the height of the collection needle) can be determined based on the color of the blood collection tube main body. In addition, since the blood collection tube coupler is mounted on the head of the blood collection tube with a cap function, it is possible to exhibit good discrimination.

  The colored blood collection couplers 90, 92 and 94 are provided with another mark in addition to the difference in color. It is a horizontal mark 96, 98, 100 printed on the outer cylindrical surface of each blood collection coupler guide. These horizontal marks 96, 98, and 100 are attached at positions that substantially coincide with the height of the sampling hole of the sampling needle so that the height of the sampling hole can be identified by appearance. The horizontal mark may be attached so as to go around the guide 44 once. In addition to the horizontal mark, a numerical value indicating the remaining amount (for example, any one of the numerical values 500, 1000, and 1500) may be engraved. In any case, it is desirable that these marks be provided in a clear manner at positions that can be easily identified either before or after the blood collection coupler is attached to the blood collection tube.

  In this way, by providing a marker such as a color, a horizontal mark, printing, or engraving, it becomes easy to grasp how much serum is contained in which blood collection tube among a plurality of blood collection tubes. In addition, since the blood collection tube is stored in a state where the blood collection tube is covered with the blood collection tube coupler, the remaining amount can be grasped without being lifted while the blood collection tube is stored in the blood collection tube rack.

It is a figure which shows the blood collection apparatus and the blood collection tube installed on it. 1 is a perspective view of a blood collection coupler according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is sectional drawing which shows the state which mounted | wore with three types of blood-collecting couplers from which the height of a collection needle differs. It is a perspective view which shows the preservation | save state of the some blood collection tube which completed the serum blood collection process. It is a figure which shows the blood-collecting coupler from which a hue mutually differs based on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Blood collection device, 12 Blood collection tube, 14 Blood clot, 16 Separation agent, 18 Space, 20 Serum, 22 Sealing stopper, 26 Collection needle, 28 Collection hole, 30 Cover, 32 Coupler stand, 34 Packing, 36 Collection container, 38 Serum, 40 Air suction path, 42 Lower end position, 44 Guide, 46 Bottom wall, 48 Discharge hole, 52 Blood collection coupler.

Claims (2)

From a plurality of blood collection tube coupler height collection hole sampling needle has is selectively attached to different Do Ri and the same blood collection tube, the particular blood collection tube coupler according to blood volume to be left in the blood collection tube A selection process to select;
A mounting step of mounting the blood collection coupler by penetrating a collection needle of the specific blood collection coupler through a sealing plug of the blood collection tube;
After the mounting step, a sampling step of taking out blood in the blood collection tube in an inverted state to the outside through the sampling needle;
Have
A blood sampling method, wherein an amount of blood corresponding to the height of the sampling hole is left in the blood collection tube. In a blood collection tube coupler set consisting of a plurality of blood collection tube couplers that are selectively attached to the same blood collection tube ,
Each blood collection coupler has a collection needle that has a collection hole that is pierced through a sealing plug of a blood collection tube containing blood and sucks blood from the inside of the blood collection tube,
Unlike the height of the collecting hole to each other at the plurality of blood collection tube coupler,
The blood collection tube coupler set executes a method in which an amount of blood corresponding to the height of the collection hole is left in the blood collection tube by selecting a specific blood collection coupler according to the amount of blood to be left in the blood collection tube Is used when
A blood collection coupler set characterized by that.

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