JP5442883B1 - Method and apparatus for processing slide glass and cover glass - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide 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 for preparation of a pathological specimen again.
Reusing a slide glass and a cover glass, including a heating unit that heat-processes the microscope specimen to 140 ° C. to 1500 ° C., and a peeling tool that causes the microscope specimen to act to separate the cover glass from the slide glass. By providing a processing device for doing so.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a processing method and a processing apparatus for separating a slide glass and a cover glass used for a pathological tissue specimen and reusing them again for pathological specimen preparation.

Pathological tissue specimens (including specimens of specimens other than pathological tissues such as cytological specimens and blood cells) are usually produced using a slide glass and a cover glass (Non-Patent Documents 1 to 5 and Patent Document 1). ~ 3).
Histopathological specimens are usually stored semipermanently and are used for pathological research, education, statistics, etc., but should be disposed if it is determined that there is almost no need for rediagnosis due to storage location. There is. In such a case, the slide glass and the cover glass are usually assumed to be permanently stored with respect to the prepared pathological tissue specimen, so it is not considered to be washed and reused without being discarded. Even if it is reused, the slide glass and the cover glass are firmly attached by an encapsulant or the like, and it is difficult to separate them.

It is also known to separate the slide glass from the cover glass, but it takes time and money, such as repairing a damaged cover glass or staining the same specimen with a different staining method. Is also a method that is specially applied when it is necessary to carry out the process. 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.

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. . 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 may be attached to the frosted portion. Since the specimens must be preserved permanently, they are not considered to be removed. Paper labels can be removed relatively easily if they are immersed in a solvent used for specimen preparation for a few days to overnight. However, resin labels with strong glue need to be peeled off by hand after immersion in the solvent. However, urethane printing is a laborious operation because it may be peeled off if it is scratched by a sharp tip or handled with chemicals that damage urethane.

  FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of a conventionally used slide glass and cover glass separation / regeneration method. The process begins at step 700 and applies a fixation that separates the glass slide and the cover glass at step 701. 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 701, the slide glass is processed in steps 702 to 707, and the cover glass is processed in steps 708 to 712. After the processing is completed in step 713, the glass is reused. Possible glass slides and cover glass are collected.

  In the process shown in FIG. 10, the total processing time is generally required for several days, and the efficiency of recycling and the number of processes are not realistic, and in the commercial sense, slide glass and cover glass regeneration from pathological tissue specimens. 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 could still be used is discarded, and there is 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. Burning combustibles with fire has the risk of causing burns and fires, and if it breaks or breaks, it may not be possible to reuse the separated cover glass. Also, sample removal, marker deletion / There have been problems such as removal and label paper removal, and there has been no realistic method that combines processing efficiency with reusability for separating the slide glass and the cover glass.

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 provides a processing method and a processing apparatus for separating and reusing a slide glass and a cover glass used for a pathological tissue specimen. With the goal.

According to the present invention,
A pathological specimen with a glass slide and a cover glass attached.
A step of heat treatment in the heating section;
Inserting into a peeling tool processed according to the outer shape of the pathological tissue specimen;
A method of treating the slide glass and the cover glass, comprising: causing the pathological tissue specimen to act on a peeling tool and separating the cover glass in a vertical direction when viewed from the adhesive surface with the slide glass.

  The pathological tissue specimen of the present invention can be either a pathological tissue specimen including a label or a pathological tissue specimen not including a label.

If the heating unit is a heating device that realizes 140 ° C to 1500 ° C, preferably 250 ° C to 300 ° C, a hot plate, an electric furnace, a microwave generator, a gas stove, a petroleum stove, an alcohol lamp, a gas burner, etc. There are no particular restrictions.
According to our experiments, the pathological specimen can be moved by moving the cover glass at 140 ° C or higher for 30 minutes, and the cover glass can be separated by heating at 180 ° C or higher for 1 minute. It was. Above 250 ° C., the cover glass could be easily separated by heating for a few seconds with almost no effort. Although it was separable even when heated to burn with a flame of 1500 ° C, it was found that when it exceeded 300 ° C, the label burned and discolored, and the glass was easily broken when immersed in xylene. Yes.
When separating the cover glass, particularly at 200 ° C. or lower, the encapsulant does not sufficiently soften, and the cover glass is not separated by moving it in a vertical direction so as to be shifted by a considerable force as viewed from the adhesive surface with the slide glass. It is known that the cover glass is broken and cannot be reused. When the temperature exceeds 200 ° C., the encapsulant is sufficiently softened so that it can be separated even if it is not straight in the vertical direction.
Both the paper label and the pass label can be easily peeled off at 160 ° C. or higher (pinch the label with tweezers or move the label so as to shift with tweezers or fingers).

The stripping tool can be shaped as shown in FIG. 1, for example. That is, the peeling tool 10 can be a notch for fitting a pathological tissue specimen, which is a flat plate having a notch having a short side width (FIGS. 1 and 10a) and a thickness (10b). The notch may be a dent. 10a may be the length of the long side instead of the short side of the slide glass. 2 and 3 show a method of peeling the cover glass 82 from the slide glass 81 by applying the peeling tool 10 to the pathological tissue specimen 80. When the pathological tissue specimen 80 is placed on the heating unit 83 with the cover glass 82 facing upward, and the bottom of the peeling tool 10 similarly placed on the heating unit 83 is passed through the arrow, the cover glass 82 is removed by the peeling tool 10. Can be hooked and peeled off. Note that the peeling tool 10 is not necessarily installed on the heating unit 83, and may be installed in another place as long as the pathological tissue specimen 80 can maintain the processing temperature. Either direction may be used. The label can be easily peeled off by heating.

Furthermore, in the present invention,
A processing apparatus for separating a pathological tissue specimen to which a slide glass and a cover glass are attached, the processing apparatus,
A heating unit that heat-treats the pathological tissue specimen and the pathological tissue specimen;
Peeling tool processed according to the outer shape of the pathological tissue specimen,
Is provided.

As the peeling tool, a block-like peeling tool 30 as shown in FIG. 6 can be used in addition to the flat plates such as the peeling tools 10 and 20 already described.
Further, as shown in FIG. 9, if the lower end of the peeling tool is cut off, the pathological tissue specimen 80 is inserted from the upper part of the gap 31, the cover glass 82 is peeled off, and at the same time, the cover glass 82 is discharged from the peeling tool 30. It can also be recovered in a recovery tank 84 installed underneath.

  In the present invention, heat can be used to efficiently peel the encapsulant that has fixed the slide glass and the cover glass, and at the same time, the label attached to the frosted portion can be removed by heat treatment. Therefore, it is possible to provide a processing method and a processing apparatus that can shorten the processing time and have a high yield. Moreover, the processing apparatus of this invention can automate each process using the peeling tool comprised so that heat may be efficiently applied for the reproduction | regeneration processing of a slide glass or a cover glass, a processing apparatus, and a collection tank. Therefore, the reproduction process can be performed reliably, and the labor for reproduction can be reduced.

The top view and side view of the peeling tool 10. FIG. Schematic of the processing method using the peeling tool 10. FIG. The relationship diagram of the peeling tool 10 and the pathological tissue specimen 80. FIG. The top view and side view of the peeling tool 20. FIG. The relationship diagram of the peeling tool 20 and the pathological tissue specimen 80. FIG. The top view of the peeling tool 30 used in Example 3. FIG. Sectional drawing of the peeling tool 30 (figure seen from the side). The front view of the peeling tool which cut off a part of the side. Sectional drawing of the peeling tool which cut off the lower part (figure seen from the side). 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.

As already described, the peeling tool used in the processing method of the present embodiment can have, for example, the shape shown in FIG. That is, it is possible to obtain a peeling tool 10 which is a notch for fitting the pathological tissue specimen 80 and is a flat plate having a notch having a short side width (FIGS. 1 and 10a) and a thickness (10b) of the slide glass. . The notch may be a dent. 10a may be the length of the long side instead of the short side of the slide glass. 2 and 3 show a method of peeling the cover glass 82 from the slide glass 81 by applying the peeling tool 10 to the pathological tissue specimen 80. When the pathological tissue specimen 80 is placed on the heating unit 83 with the cover glass 82 facing upward, and passed under the peeling tool 10 similarly installed on the heating unit 83 according to the arrow, it is caught by the cover glass 82 and peeled off. be able to. Note that the peeling tool 10 does not necessarily have to be installed on the heating unit 83, and may be installed in another place as long as the pathological tissue specimen 80 can maintain the processing temperature. The direction of can be either. The label can be easily peeled off by heating.

Although the peeling tool 10 has a notch, the peeling tool 20 which is a flat plate having a gap 21 can be used (FIG. 4). In this case, when the cover glass 82 is installed in contact with the heating unit 83, the slide glass 81 floats from the heating unit by the thickness 20 c of the cover glass 82. If the position 20c of the gap 21 is made the same as the thickness of the cover glass 81, and if the height 20b is made the same as the thickness of the slide glass 81, the pathological tissue specimen 80 can be easily inserted into the gap 21. The cover glass 81 can be hooked on the flat plate 20 and can be easily peeled off (FIG. 5).

The stripping tool may be made of any material such as a metal such as aluminum or stainless steel, glass, resin, or the like, as long as it does not deform or deteriorate due to the heat treatment temperature and the force applied to the treatment.

A block-shaped peeling tool 30 as shown in FIG. 6 can also be used. FIG. 7 is a side view of the peeling tool 30 and shows a state cut at a in FIG. 6 so that the internal structure can be understood. A pathological tissue specimen 80 can be inserted from above the gap 31, and a cover glass 82 can be hooked on the action point 32 to be peeled off.
The outer shape of the block is not limited to a rectangular parallelepiped, and may be a sphere or a cylinder, and is not particularly limited. The shape of the action point is not limited as long as it securely holds the cover glass 82 and does not damage the cover glass 82, such as a straight line, a curved line, a corrugated shape, a trapezoid, and a protrusion. The material of the peeling tool is not limited as long as it is not deformed or altered by the heat treatment temperature and the force applied to the treatment, such as a metal such as aluminum or stainless steel, glass, or resin.

Further, as shown in FIG. 8, a part of the side of the peeling tool may be cut off, and the pathological tissue specimen 80 may be inserted not only from above the gap 31 but also from the side.

If the lower end of the peeling tool is cut off as shown in FIG. 9, the pathological tissue specimen 80 is inserted from the upper part of the gap 31, the cover glass 82 is peeled off, and at the same time, the cover glass 82 is discharged from the peeling tool 30, It can also be recovered in a recovery tank 84 installed in

There is no restriction | limiting in the direction of installation of any peeling tool, Each surface and the insertion port may be installed anywhere on the upper and lower sides, right and left, the back, and this side, and the diagonal direction may be sufficient.

  The heating unit of the present invention may be a hot plate, an electric furnace, a microwave generator, a gas stove, a petroleum stove, an alcohol lamp, a gas as long as it is a heating device that realizes 140 ° C. to 1500 ° C., preferably 250 ° C. to 300 ° C. Anything such as a burner is acceptable. Moreover, even if it makes a part of peeling tool contact and heats, a peeling tool may be installed in a heating apparatus and it may heat. The label can be easily peeled off by heating.

  The pathological specimen 80 uses a pathological specimen prepared by attaching a paper label or a pathological path label made of resin to a resin frost printed on the slide glass 81, but there is no label or a slide having no frost. Similar results can be obtained with glass or glass slides made by frosting the glass itself. Therefore, it is omitted in the figure.

Example 1
The histopathological specimen 80 is heated in a heating section 83 kept at 80 ° C., 120 ° C., 160 ° C., 180 ° C., 200 ° C., 250 ° C., 300 ° C., 1500 ° C. with the cover glass 82 facing upward. After warming and softening the encapsulant, the lower part of the peeling tool 10 placed on the heating unit 83 was applied as shown in FIG. 2 to separate the cover glass 82.
At 140 ° C., the cover glass 82 can be separated in several seconds at 250 ° C. and 300 ° C. after heating for 30 minutes at 180 ° C. and 200 ° C. for 1 minute. However, at 200 ° C. or lower, the encapsulant was not sufficiently softened even if the heating time was extended, and considerable force was required. At 250 ° C. or higher, the cover glass 82 could be easily separated with little force by heating for a few seconds. At any temperature, it could be processed more easily than tweezers without damaging the cover glass.
Both the paper label and the pass label could be peeled by pinching the label with tweezers at 160 ° C. or higher, or moving the label with tweezers or fingers.

(Example 2)
Similarly to Example 1, when the peeling tool 20 was applied, the cover glass applied surface of the cover glass did not contact the hot plate, so the cover glass did not stick to the hot plate and could be processed more easily than the peeling tool 10. .

(Example 3)
6 and 7 are installed in an electric furnace so that the opening of the gap 31 is on the side and the action part 32 is on the gap 31, and the temperature is kept at 300 ° C. in advance. Then, the pathological tissue specimen 80 is inserted into the gap 31 with the cover glass 82 facing upward, while being in contact with the peeling tool, so that the cover glass 82 is located behind the action portion 32, and then the pathological tissue specimen 80 is When pulled out so as to be in contact with the upper part of 31, the action part 32 peels off the cover glass 82, so that only the slide glass 81 could be taken out simply by inserting and pulling out.

Example 4
About the peeling tool 30, one end on the opposite side to the opening of the gap 31 was cut off, an opening was also provided on the opposite side of the original opening, and the recovery tank 84 was kept warm at 300 ° C. in the electric furnace (FIG. 9). . The microscope specimen 80 is inserted into the gap 31 from the opening on the side of the action part 32, and the cover glass 82 is peeled off by the action part 32, and at the same time, the cover glass 82 is discharged from the peeling tool 30 and collected under the peeling tool 30. It was collected in the tank 84. At the same time as taking out only the slide glass 81 just by inserting and pulling out, the cover glass 82 could also be recovered without troublesome operations.

(Comparative example)
When soaked in xylene at 60 to 70 ° C., the cover glass was not separated until 24 hours or longer had passed.
Moreover, when it was immersed in xylene for 40 minutes or more and it was going to peel off with a gum tape, even if it immersed for 2 hours, the slide glass and the cover glass did not isolate | separate and the label could not be removed.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a processing method and a processing apparatus for separating and reusing a slide glass and a cover glass used for a pathological tissue specimen, thereby saving resources and The material used for the pathological tissue specimen can be regenerated with energy saving, and the cost in medical treatment / diagnosis can be reduced.

10 Peeling tool (Example 1)
20 Peeling tool (Example 2)
21 Gap 30 Peeling tool (Examples 3 and 4)
31 Gap 32 Peeling action part

80 pathological tissue specimen 81 slide glass of pathological tissue specimen 82 cover glass of pathological tissue specimen 83 heating unit 84 cover glass recovery tank

Claims (2)

  A step of heating the pathological tissue specimen to which the slide glass and the cover glass are attached to a heating unit to 140 ° C. to 300 ° C., and a peeling tool acting on the pathological tissue specimen to separate the cover glass from the slide glass. In the processing method of a slide glass and a cover glass including a process, the peeling tool is a notch for fitting a pathological tissue specimen, and is a flat plate having a notch with a width and a thickness of one side of the slide glass. Method.   A step of heating the pathological tissue specimen to which the slide glass and the cover glass are attached to a heating unit to 140 ° C. to 300 ° C., and a peeling tool acting on the pathological tissue specimen to separate the cover glass from the slide glass. In the processing method of a slide glass and a cover glass including a process, the peeling tool is a flat plate having a gap between one side of the slide glass and a thickness, which is a gap for fitting a pathological tissue specimen.