JP6691763B2 - Alignment mechanism of cassette for medical examination - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an alignment mechanism for aligning a medical examination cassette, particularly a predetermined process (for example, a symbol indicating a patient or a specimen) when manufacturing a microscope specimen for observing / inspecting a specimen such as a pathological tissue. Etc.) and an alignment mechanism for aligning the medical inspection cassettes.

  When examining a pathological sample collected by a surgical means, first, a doctor takes out a pathological tissue from an affected area and cuts it into a predetermined size. The cut pathological tissues (samples S) are handed to the technician one by one and stored in a medical examination cassette C (hereinafter, may be simply referred to as a cassette C) as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, for example. . After that, the sample S that has been subjected to dehydration and a chemical treatment for imparting affinity with paraffin is embedded in paraffin and attached to the back surface of the cassette to form a paraffin block B (see FIG. 9). This paraffin block B is sliced with a microtome, and the obtained thin pieces are subjected to a predetermined treatment such as staining to obtain a microscope sample for observation / inspection of pathological tissue.

When producing a microscope specimen for observation / inspection of the above-described pathological tissue, it is necessary to prevent the sample S and the patient from being mixed up. For that purpose, for example, a cassette printer described in Non-Patent Document 1 is used. Information for identifying a patient or a specimen is printed on the recording surface R of the cassette C in advance, and the cassettes C are arranged in order of ease of use. In the above cassette C, the recording surface R is formed in a slope shape, but there is also a vertical surface.
However, in the conventional cassette printer as disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, for example, since the cassettes are printed and then arranged directly on the tray, the cassette C may bounce on the tray and the cassette C may not be arranged at a predetermined position. Further, if the cassette C moves to an unintended position, the order is out of order, which hinders the inspection, and it becomes difficult to remove the cassette C because it is jammed in the path for feeding the cassette C onto the tray.

Website showing inkjet printers for Leica IP C tissue cassettes (URL: http://www.leicabiosystems.com/jp/%E6%A8%99%E6%9C%AC%E4%BD%9C%E6%88% 90 /% E6% A4% 9C% E4% BD% 93% E8% AD% 98% E5% 88% A5 / details / product / leica-ip-c /)

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems, to prevent the cassette from bouncing and moving to an unintended position, and to provide an alignment mechanism capable of surely aligning the cassette at a predetermined position on the tray.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the features of the present invention are that a slope for a medical examination cassette slides down, a shutter that reciprocates between an open position and a closed position arranged in a straight line, and a medical examination cassette slipped down from the slope. The medical inspection cassette, which is composed of trays arranged in parallel, is slid down from the bent slope and the momentum is weakened , is received by the shutter in the closed position, and when the shutter moves from the closed position to the open position, the medical inspection cassette is a tray. The medical examination cassette is arranged at one end of the tray and is configured so that the medical examination cassette is pushed out from one end of the tray toward the other end when the shutter moves from the open position to the closed position. The contents are the arrangement mechanism of the cassette for use.
Another feature of the present invention is the medical examination cassette alignment mechanism described above, wherein the medical examination cassette has a recording surface on which information is printed.
Another feature of the present invention includes the alignment mechanism for the medical examination cassette described above, wherein the tray is transparent.
Another feature of the present invention is the alignment mechanism of the medical examination cassette described above, characterized in that the recording surfaces on which the information of the medical examination cassette is printed are aligned so as to face the outside of the tray. .
Another feature of the present invention is that the open position and the closed position are linearly arranged on the tray in the direction in which the medical inspection cassette is pushed out, and the alignment mechanism for the medical inspection cassette described above. Is the content.

Since the alignment mechanism of the medical examination cassette according to the present invention reduces the momentum of the medical examination cassette that has slid down the slope by the shutter, the medical examination cassette, in particular, the processing (for example, information for identifying a patient or a specimen is stored). It is possible to prevent the cassettes from bouncing when arranging the medical inspection cassettes after printing on the trays, and to arrange the cassettes on the tray in a predetermined position in an orderly manner.
When the medical examination cassette is a cassette on which information is printed, it can be arranged in parallel in a certain direction so that the information can be easily viewed.
Further, when the trays are transparent, the trays can be arranged side by side so that the side on which the information for medical examination is printed faces the outside of the trays, and the information can be viewed through the transparent side wall of the trays.
Further, when the open position and the closed position are linearly arranged on the tray in the direction in which the medical examination cassette is pushed out, the reciprocating movement of the shutter and the pushing out of the medical examination cassette on the tray cause a parallel direction. Match each other, the structure of the mechanism is simplified, and parallel work is easy.

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view showing an example of an alignment mechanism of a medical examination cassette of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory view showing the positional relationship between the slope and the cassette when the shutter is in the closed position. FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory view showing the positional relationship between the slope and the cassette when the shutter is at the open position. FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing the positional relationship between the shutter, the cassette, and the tray when the shutter is in the open position. FIG. 5 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing the positional relationship between the shutter, the cassette, and the tray when the shutter moves to the closed position. 6A and 6B are schematic explanatory views showing another example of the shutter. FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view showing an example of a general medical examination cassette. FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view of the medical examination cassette of FIG. 7. FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing a paraffin block.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the medical inspection cassette alignment mechanism 1 of the present invention includes a slope 2, a shutter 3, and a tray 4.

In the present invention, the slope 2 refers to a path until a medical examination cassette C, for example, a processed (for example, a display for identifying a patient or a specimen is printed) cassette C is transferred to a tray 4. It is formed in a slope shape so that it automatically slides down under the weight of C.
It is preferable that the slope 2 has a wide entrance side so that the cassette C can be easily received from a processing step such as printing. Further, in order to suppress the swinging of the cassette C that slides down the slope 2 and stabilize the position, it is preferable to form the outlet side narrow.

  The material of the slope 3 is not particularly limited, but it is preferable that the coefficient of friction with the cassette C is small, that is, the cassette C is slippery. Specific examples thereof include resins and metals, but stainless steel, aluminum and the like are preferable because they are resistant to rust and can be kept slippery for a long time.

  The cassette C that has slid down the slope 2 is received by the cassette receiving portion 3a of the shutter 3 located at the closed position Pc, as shown in FIGS. After that, the shutter 3 moves to the open position Po, and as shown in FIG. 3, the cassette C, which is weakened by the cassette receiving portion 3a, is installed on the same plane as the tray 4 or the tray. It is dropped in the concave groove 4 '. Since the cassette C dropped in the tray 4 or the concave groove 4'has been weakened in advance, it does not bounce on the tray 4 or the concave groove 4'and is stably placed at 0. 2 and 3, an example in which the concave groove 4'is provided lower than the bottom surface of the slope 2 is shown.

In the present invention, the shutter 3 reciprocates between the closed position Pc and the open position Po, as shown in FIG. When the shutter 3 moves from the closed position Pc to the open position Po, the cassette C on the slope 3 moves to the tray 4 or the concave groove 4 ′ (see FIG. 4), and when the shutter 3 moves from the open position Po to the closed position Pc. The cassette C in the tray 4 or the groove 4'is pushed forward in the tray 4 by the cassette pushing portion 3b of the shutter 3 (see FIG. 5). Then, when the shutter 3 returns to the closed position Pc, a space for arranging new cassettes C is formed, and when the shutter 3 completely returns to the closed position Pc, the new cassette C is supplied (see FIGS. 1 and 2). By repeating this, the cassettes C are arranged on the tray 4.
As described above, it is preferable that the open position Po and the closed position Pc of the shutter 3 are arranged linearly in the direction in which the medical examination cassette C is pushed out on the tray 4. Not only does the structure become simpler, but it also facilitates parallel work.

The shape of the shutter 3 is not particularly limited as long as it has a function of receiving the cassette C sliding down the slope 2 and a function of pushing out the cassette C on the tray 4 in one direction as described above, but in the illustrated example, it is made of resin. The rectangular parallelepiped molded body is used as the shutter 3.
Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 6A, the receiving portion 3a of the cassette C and the push-out portion 3b of the cassette C may be formed into a plate-shaped shutter 3 having a plate shape. ), The shutter 3 in which the receiving portion 3a of the cassette C and the pushing portion 3b of the cassette are formed in an oblique shape may be used.

The tray 4 is, for example, a tray for arranging the cassettes C that have undergone processing (for example, printing of predetermined information) in a line. The size is not particularly limited as long as the cassettes C can be aligned. However, when the size of the cassette C is always constant, the width of the cassette C is just enough to accommodate a desired number of cassettes C. The length is preferably such that the individual pieces can be arranged in a straight line. When there are several sizes of cassettes C, the width may be set so that the largest cassette C among them can be accommodated.
The tray 4 is preferably transparent. By making the tray 4 transparent, for example, the recording surface R on which the information of the cassette C is printed is the outside of the tray 4, that is, the open side (the lower side in the drawing) where other structures such as a printing device do not exist. By arranging them side by side so that the information can be seen through the transparent side wall of the tray 4, mistakes can be prevented and workability is improved.

In the present invention, the materials of the shutter 3, the tray 4, and the cassette C are not particularly limited as long as they are hard members having a certain level of strength, but resin is preferable from the viewpoint of moldability and light weight.
Examples of synthetic resins that can be used in the present invention include POM resins (polyacetal resins), ABS resins (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer resins), AAS resins (acrylonitrile / acrylic rubber / styrene resins), AES resins (acrylonitrile / ethylene). Propylene rubber / styrene resin), AS resin (acrylonitrile / styrene resin), PS resin (polystyrene resin), PMMA resin (polymethylmethacrylate resin), PVC resin (polyvinylidene chloride resin), MS resin (methylmethacrylate / styrene resin) , PP resin (polypropylene resin), PE resin (polyethylene resin), PBT resin (polybutylene terephthalate resin), PC resin (polycarbonate resin) and the like. Further, biodegradable plastics such as polylactic acid resin, polybutylene succinate, polyamide 11, polyhydroxybutyric acid and biomass plastics can also be used.

  As described above, according to the medical examination cassette alignment mechanism of the present invention, it is possible to efficiently and reliably align cassettes that have undergone processing such as printing predetermined patient information and sample information, for example, It is very useful as an arrangement mechanism for arranging the printed cassettes ejected from the cassette printer.

1 Medical inspection cassette alignment mechanism 2 Slope 3 Shutter 3a Cassette receiving portion 3b Cassette pushing portion 4 Tray 4'Groove C Medical examination cassette S Sample B Cassette block R Recording surface Po Open position Pc Closed position

Claims (5)

It consists of a slope where the medical inspection cassette slides down, a shutter that reciprocates between an open position and a closed position arranged in a straight line, and a tray in which the medical inspection cassettes that slide down from the slope are arranged side by side.
The medical examination cassette, which slid down from the bent slope and weakened, was received by the shutter in the closed position,
When the shutter moves from the closed position to the open position, the medical examination cassette is placed at one end of the tray,
An arrangement mechanism for a medical examination cassette, wherein the medical examination cassette is configured to be pushed out from one end of the tray toward the other end when the shutter moves from the open position to the closed position.   The medical inspection cassette aligning mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the medical inspection cassette has a recording surface on which information is printed.   3. The medical examination cassette alignment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the tray is transparent.   The medical inspection cassette alignment mechanism according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the information recording printed surfaces of the medical inspection cassettes are arranged side by side so as to face the outside of the tray.   The open position and the closed position are linearly arranged on the tray in a direction in which the medical examination cassette is pushed out, and the medical examination cassette according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein Alignment mechanism.

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