JPH0448535Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Technical field This invention is a method for analyzing a substance that has a specific affinity for a test substance when analyzing a predetermined substance in a sample such as blood using specific affinity. This invention relates to a carrier loading device for an automatic immunological analyzer that sequentially introduces immobilization carriers into a reaction tube for immobilizing.

Prior Art Methods have been proposed in which a substance having a specific affinity for a test substance in a sample is combined, such as an antigen and an antibody, a receptor and a hormone, a metal or a vitamin, and a binding protein. In an analysis method that utilizes this specific affinity, for example, a substance (e.g., antibody ) is fixed,
The amount of the test substance reacted with the sample in the reaction container and bound to the immobilization carrier is measured using a marker such as oxygen. The immobilization carrier used for analysis utilizing this specific affinity is made of bead-shaped glass with a diameter of 7 to 10 mm or synthetic resin such as polystyrene or polypropylene, and is similar to that for various measurement items. are used, and the immunity of each specific affinity substance immobilized on the surface of these immobilization carriers is also very similar. For this reason, once a specific affinity substance is immobilized, it is not easy to identify from the outside which measurement item it is used for. Since the carriers are used simultaneously, there is a risk that the carriers immobilized for each measurement item may be mixed up and put into the reaction vessel. Analyzing with the wrong carrier can lead to incorrect diagnosis of various diseases and affect human life, so it must be avoided at all costs. Therefore, when analyzing multiple items at the same time, it is extremely important to avoid mixing up carriers during analysis operations.

Purpose of the invention The purpose of the invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, to avoid mixing up the carriers even when analyzing multiple measurement items at the same time, to correctly introduce each carrier into the reaction tube, and to simultaneously handle multiple types of carriers. An object of the present invention is to provide a carrier loading device for an immunological automatic analyzer that can be loaded.

Summary of the invention The present invention is a carrier loading device used in an automatic immunological analyzer that performs immunological analysis by reacting a sample with a substance that has a specific affinity for a test substance in a reaction container. a plurality of fixedly arranged carrier containers individually accommodating a plurality of types of carriers on which substances each having a specific affinity for each test substance are immobilized; a plurality of outlet openings for sequentially taking out the carriers that have been removed; and a plurality of outlet openings arranged to face the exit openings and in the same relative positional relationship as the arrangement position of the exit openings;
a gate member having a plurality of through holes formed therein with a diameter that allows the carrier to pass through; and a gate member that is arranged below the gate member and has the same relative positional relationship as the formation position of the through holes formed in the gate member. , a fixing member in which a plurality of through holes are formed with a diameter that allows the carrier to pass through; a drive device for driving and controlling the holes so that they are aligned with each other at a predetermined timing, and the plurality of types of carriers housed in each of the carrier containers are guided into each reaction through the outlet opening and the through hole of the gate member. It is characterized by being configured such that each of the two types of water is fed simultaneously.

Example In the present invention, before immobilizing a specific affinity substance on each carrier used for each measurement item, an identification means is applied to clearly distinguish it from the outside, and the appearance of the carrier is made different depending on the test substance. do. Identification means include the shape, particle size, color, etc. of the carrier, and in this example, each carrier used for each measurement item is colored to make the appearance of the carrier different depending on the test substance. The materials constituting the carrier are mainly glass and synthetic resin, and since these materials are transparent, when colored, the appearance of the carrier can be easily identified by the color of the colorant, and
The specific affinity substance used in each analysis is almost milky white, so even if the specific affinity substance is immobilized on the surface of the carrier, it is difficult to clearly identify the carrier to be used depending on the analyte from the outside. is possible.

As the coloring method, there are the following methods.

(1) Add dye to glass or synthetic resin, which is the carrier material.
Coloring agents such as pigments and metal compounds are added and kneaded, and then formed into beads.

(2) The coloring agent is encapsulated in glass or synthetic resin and molded into beads. This method has the advantage that the influence of the colorant does not have to be taken into account because the colorant is sealed inside.

(3) After molding glass or synthetic resin materials into beads, the surface of the carrier is coated with a thin layer by dyeing. This method has the advantage that the coloring operation can be performed immediately before immobilizing the substance with specific affinity, and only one type of carrier needs to be prepared.

Next, an automatic immunological analyzer using the carrier according to the present invention will be explained. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an example of an automatic immunological analyzer using a carrier according to the present invention.

In this example, the operator selects 2 pre-immobilized antigens or antibodies that cause an antigen-antibody reaction with the test substance in the sample, depending on the item to be analyzed in each reaction line.
Different types of carriers are individually stored in a carrier loading device to be described later. At this time, the operator confirms from the appearance of the carrier whether or not the carrier to be set is accommodated in a predetermined container. In this example, two reaction lines are provided concentrically so that two items of analysis can be performed simultaneously on one sample. A reaction tube disk 1 that rotates intermittently in the direction of the arrow on a horizontal plane holds 24 reaction tubes 2 arranged radially for each reaction line. The step stop positions of these reaction tubes 2 are indicated by symbols S ₁ to S ₂₄ . The analytical operations in each reaction line will be briefly explained below. First of all,
At the stop position S ₁₇ , carriers corresponding to the items to be analyzed in each reaction line are charged into each reaction tube 2 of the outer and inner reaction lines by the carrier charging device 3, and then these reaction tubes 2, carriers 4a and 4b
is cleaned by the cleaning device 5 at the stop position _S22 . The cleaning device 5 includes a mechanism for sucking the liquid in the reaction tube and a mechanism for discharging the cleaning liquid into the reaction tube. Thereafter, at the stop position _S24 , the buffer solution dispensing device 6 dispenses a predetermined amount of the buffer solution 7 into each reaction tube 2, and then at the stop position _S1 , the sample dispensing device 8 starts rotating the reaction tube disk 1. A predetermined amount of the same sample is dispensed from a sample cup 10 held in a sample 9 that rotates intermittently in the direction shown by the arrow in synchronization with the movement, and the first antigen-antibody reaction is performed in each reaction line. have them do it.

When the reaction tubes 2 into which the carriers 4a and 4b have been introduced and the buffer solution 7 and the sample have been dispensed have made one revolution and reached the stop position _S22 again, the cleaning device 5 cleans each reaction tube 1 and the carriers 4a and 4b. After performing the first B/F separation, predetermined amounts of enzyme-labeled reagents 12A and 12B corresponding to the items to be analyzed in each reaction line are dispensed by the reagent dispensing devices 11A and 11B at the stop position _S3 . Dispense and perform a second antigen-antibody reaction. After that, each reaction tube 2 and the carriers 4a and _4b are washed at the stop position _S22 and a second B/F separation is performed, and then each reaction tube 1 is
After dispensing a predetermined amount of the coloring reagent 14 to each to perform a coloring reaction, the reaction liquids are moved to the stop position.
At S ₁₉ , the mixture is sucked into colorimeter 15A and 15B for colorimetric measurement. Next, at the stop position _S20 , the carriers 4a and 4b remaining in each reaction tube 2 are taken out by the carrier take-out device 16, and then the carriers 4a and 4b remaining in each reaction tube 2 are taken out.
At _S22 , each reaction tube 2 is washed by the washing device 5 in preparation for the analysis of the next sample.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the structure of an example of the carrier loading device 3 according to the present invention shown in FIG. 1. At the upper part of the carrier input device 20, there are carrier containers 22a and 2 which separately accommodate two types of carriers 21a and 21b of different colors on which specific affinity substances have already been immobilized.
2b is fixedly arranged, and the carrier containers 22a and 2
Cylindrical portions 23a and 23 having an inner diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the carriers 21a and 21b are provided at the bottom of the carriers 2b, respectively.
b are connected to each other to form an outlet opening. At the lower ends of these cylindrical parts 23a and 23b, a gate disc 24 is rotatably arranged opposite to each other, and this gate disc 2
4 have cylindrical portions 2 facing each other in the radial direction.
Holes 24a and 24b having a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of carriers 21a and 21b are formed at radial positions on the movement line aligned with the lower end exits of carriers 3a and 23b. Note that the gate disk 24 is connected to a drive device (not shown) and driven to rotate in the direction of the arrow. Furthermore, this gate disk 2
A fixing plate 25 is located below the fixing plate 25, and reaction tubes 26a and 26b on the aforementioned outer and inner reaction lines are located below the fixing plate 25. Two holes 25a and 25b are formed at the positions. In response to the intermittent rotational movement of the reaction tube disk 1 described above, the gate disk 24 rotates, and the carrier 2 is transferred from the carrier storage containers 22a and 22b through the cylindrical portions 23a and 23b.
1a and 21b are each one gate disk 2
4 into holes 24a and 24b. and,
The holes 24a and 24b of the gate disk 24 are connected to the fixing plate 2.
When the carriers 21a and 21b coincide with the positions of the holes 25a and 25b in No. 5, they are introduced into the reaction tubes 26a and 26b, respectively.

fixedly arranging a plurality of carrier containers and fixing members;
The gate member is rotatably arranged between the carrier container and the fixed member, and each carrier is taken out and put into the reaction container by rotating only the gate member, so when performing multinomial analysis, Moreover, it is possible to cause inconveniences such as mistaken removal of various types of carriers. As a result, the diagnosis of various diseases can be analyzed without error, and the reliability of the analysis can be improved.

Furthermore, since the driving member is only the gate member, the structure of the device can be further simplified.

Furthermore, since a plurality of types of carriers can be added at the same time, the overall carrier injection time is shortened, and multi-item analysis can be performed in a shorter time.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an example of an automatic immunological analyzer for measuring multiple items using the immobilization carrier according to the present invention, and Figure 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of an automatic immunological analyzer for measuring multiple items shown in Figure 1. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the configuration of an example of a carrier insertion device used in an analysis device. 1...Reaction tube disk, 2...Reaction tube, 3,2
0... Carrier input device, 4, 21... Carrier, 5...
Cleaning device, 6... buffer dispensing device, 7... buffer, 8... sample dispensing device, 9... sample,
10... Sample cup, 11, 13... Reagent dispensing device, 12... Oxygen labeling reagent, 14... Coloring reagent, 15... Colorimeter, 16... Carrier extractor, 22
...Carrier container, 23...Cylindrical part, 24...Gate disc, 25...Fixing plate.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] In a carrier loading device used in an automatic immunological analyzer that performs immunological analysis by reacting a sample with a substance that has a specific affinity for a test substance in a reaction container. , a plurality of fixedly arranged carrier containers individually accommodating a plurality of types of carriers on which substances each having a specific affinity for each test substance are immobilized; and formed in each of the carrier containers, a plurality of exit openings for sequentially taking out the accommodated carriers; arranged to face the exit openings and in the same relative positional relationship as the arrangement position of these exit openings;
a gate member having a plurality of through holes formed therein with a diameter that allows the carrier to pass through; and a gate member that is arranged below the gate member and has the same relative positional relationship as the formation position of the through holes formed in the gate member. , a fixing member formed with a plurality of through holes having a diameter that allows the carrier to pass through; and a drive device for driving and controlling the holes so that they are aligned with each other at a predetermined timing, and the plurality of types of carriers housed in each of the carrier containers are guided into each reaction through the outlet opening and the through hole of the gate member. What is claimed is: 1. A carrier loading device for an automatic immunological analyzer, characterized in that the carrier loading device is configured to load both simultaneously.