JPH05302931A - Spot attaching method of specimen - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform the spot attachment of a specified amount of a specimen to a body to be attached positively at a high speed and to enhance the measuring accuracy of the amount of reflected light by specifying the gap size from a nozzle to the body to be attached, and discharging the specimen from the nozzle at the specified speed or higher. CONSTITUTION:A three-way valve 15 is switched, and a nozzle 11 and a syringe 12 are made to communicate with each other. The nozzle 11 is moved to the position of spot attachment and positioned. A piece of test paper 22 is conveyed to the initial position of the spot attachment with a pin 21. At this time, a gap C between the nozzle 11 and a body to be attached 23 is made to be 2/3 or less of a diameter D of the nozzle. Urine in the syringe 12 is dropped and attached on the body to be attached 23a (for measuring occult blood) of the piece of paper 22 through the nozzle 11. At the body to be attached 23a, the discharging speed is set at 0.5m/s or more and 1-2m/s, e.g. 2m/s, and the amount of the spot attachment is set at about 8mul. Then, the piece of paper 22 is moved by one pitch, and a body to be attached 23b (for measuring urine sugar) is positioned at the lower side of the nozzle 11. The spot attachment is performed by setting the discharging speed of 1m/s and the amount of spot attachment at 7mul. Then, the operation is repeated in response to other bodies to be attached 23. The amount of the reflected light from the piece of paper 22, which is stuck to each body to be attached 23, is measured.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for spotting a sample.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method for spotting a sample such as urine or blood on a spotted object, there is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-37569, for example, as shown in FIG. In this case, a gap C is formed between the nozzle 1 and the spotted body 3 provided on the test strip 2 so that the state in which the liquid droplet 4 is formed can be maintained.
And the spotting speed is set to be approximately equal to the amount of the sample permeating the spotted object 3 per unit time, that is, the spreading speed. As a result, it is possible to prevent a problem that the spotting speed becomes faster than the developing speed and the specimen adheres to the nozzle 1, or conversely becomes small and the specimen does not remain on the nozzle 1 without being completely spotted.

[0003]

However, in the spotting method, the spotting time is long because the spotting must be performed while maintaining the state in which the liquid droplet 4 is formed at the tip of the nozzle 1. Particularly, in the adherend 3 to which the water absorption performance is poor, the spotting time becomes longer and the inspection efficiency is lowered. Also,
Before the sample spreads over the whole of the adherend 3, the reaction at the center of the spot proceeds too much, so that spot coloring or uneven coloring may occur, which may reduce the measurement accuracy of the reflected light amount. In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a specimen spotting method capable of spotting a predetermined amount of specimen reliably and at high speed, and further improving the measurement accuracy of the amount of reflected light.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention sets the gap size from the nozzle to the spotted object to about 2/3 or less of the inner diameter of the nozzle, and the sample from the nozzle to about 0.5 m. Since the sample is discharged at a high pressure to the spotted body by discharging at a rate of / s or more and spotted on the spotted body, the sample is spotted on the entire surface regardless of the deployment speed of the spotted body. , Spot coloring and uneven coloring can be reduced. The discharge speed is 1 to
It is preferably 2 m / s.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a nozzle, which moves horizontally by a drive mechanism (not shown) and moves vertically in the vertical direction. Reference numeral 12 denotes a syringe, which is driven by a pulse motor 13 and has a built-in piston 12a.
Is slidable. In addition, this syringe 12
The tube 14 communicates with the nozzle 11 and a wash water tank (not shown), and the nozzle 11 side and the wash water tank side are switched by a three-way valve 15.

Reference numeral 16 is a test strip conveying device, which moves a belt 19 wound between rollers 18 by the forward and reverse rotations of a pulse motor 17. As a result, this belt 1
The base 20 fixed to 9 reciprocates, and the pin 21 standing on the base 20 conveys the test strip 22. The test paper piece 22 is in the form of a strip, and a plurality of items to be adhered 23 are attached to the upper surface at predetermined intervals.

A controller 24 controls the motors 13 and 17, the three-way valve 15 and a nozzle drive mechanism (not shown) based on previously stored data. This control device 2
In 4, the ejection speed data of the sample from the nozzle 11 and the spotting amount data required for each spotted body 23 of the test strip 22 are stored.

The discharge speed is determined in proportion to the moving speed of the piston 12a sliding in the syringe 12, that is, the frequency of the input pulse to the pulse motor 13. In this case, the ejection speed of the sample ejected from the nozzle 11 is 0.5.
Set to m / s or higher. Here, the present inventors conducted an experiment on the spotted state (judged by absorbance) of the occult blood measurement test paper, which has poor water absorption performance and a slow development speed.

However, the developing speed was determined as follows. That is, a filter paper made of the same material as that of each spotted body 23 is cut into strips (40 mm × 250 mm). Then, the tip portion is dipped (5 mm) while the strip is suspended in the vertical direction, and the suction height is measured for a predetermined time (30 minutes). The value thus measured is the unfolding speed (160 mm) of the filter paper that has not been treated for the spotted object.
/ 30min), and if the value is less than half, it is judged that the soaking speed is slow. In this case, the spotted body for measuring the occult blood was 51 mm / 30 min.

In the present experiment, the test paper for measuring occult blood was
8 μl of Blue No. 1 dye 1 g / l was ejected at a discharge speed of 2 m / s, and test paper was put into 3 ml of purified water to elute the dye.
The method of irradiating light with a wavelength of 30 nm and measuring the absorbance was used. The experimental results are shown below. Experimental example 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 8 9 10 Absorbance 0.410 0.411 0.405 0.408 0.402 0.405 0.412 0.407 0.405 0.405 Average 0.4070 (ABS), standard deviation 0.0032 (%), repeatability 0.786 (%)

As described above, by increasing the discharge speed, the desired absorbance can be reliably obtained, and the sample is discharged from the nozzle 11
There was no problem that the amount of spotting was reduced by adhering to the outer peripheral portion. In addition, the sample spread evenly over the entire surface of the adherend 23. This is because the sample is the pointed body 23
It is thought that this is because the spotting speed is exceeded and the spotting is performed.

On the other hand, the spotted amount is determined by the moving distance of the piston 12a that slides in the syringe 12, and is set so that the amount of reflected light can be accurately measured for each spotted body 23. However, the amount of reflected light is 2
After spotting the sample on each of the spot-to-be-adhered bodies 23 of 2, the color reaction is carried out by keeping a constant temperature in the thermostat for a predetermined time, and the reflected light at the time of irradiating the light of the predetermined wavelength is measured to obtain the reflection optical density. Is what you get.

Next, the spotting operation by the spotting device will be described. First, the three-way valve 15 is switched to connect the nozzle 11 and the syringe 12. Then, the nozzle 11 is moved and inserted into a test tube (not shown) or the like to suck and hold the sample inside. Then, the nozzle 11 is moved to the spotting position and positioned at a predetermined height. Here, one piece of the test paper piece 22 housed in a cassette (not shown) is conveyed all at once by the pin 21 provided on the base 20 to the first spotting position shown in FIG. 1 and stopped. In this case, the gap dimension C between the nozzle 11 and the spotted body 23 can be set so as to have a maximum relationship with the ejection speed of the sample from the nozzle 11 as shown in the graph of FIG. In this embodiment, the inner diameter D of the nozzle 11 is 1.12 mm, while the gap dimension C is 0.6 mm.

Then, the pointed body 23 of the test paper piece 22
Urine sucked into the syringe 12 is spotted from the nozzle 11 to a (for occult blood measurement). This spotting is performed by the pulse motor 1 based on a control signal issued from the control device 24.
3 is driven to control the moving speed and moving distance of the piston 12a in the syringe 12. Specifically, for this spotted body 23a, the discharge speed is set to 2 m / s and the spotted amount is set to 8 μl.

Subsequently, the test paper piece 22 is moved by one pitch, and the spotted body 23b (for measuring urine sugar) is positioned below the nozzle 11 and spotted. In this case, discharge speed is 1m
/ S, and the spotted amount is set to 7 μl. Hereinafter, the above-described operation is repeated according to the other pointed body 23.

When the specimen has been spotted on each spotted body 23 of the test paper piece 22 in this manner, the nozzle 11 is moved by the drive mechanism and inserted into the washing test tube (not shown).
Then, the three-way valve 15 is switched from the nozzle 11 side to the cleaning water tank side, and cleaning water is supplied to the nozzle 11 for cleaning. After that, as described above, the nozzle 11 is moved and inserted into the test tube containing the next sample, and the same operation is repeated thereafter. The test paper piece 22 adhered to each of the spot-to-be-adhered bodies 23 is conveyed to the next step, and the amount of reflected light is measured in the same manner as in the prior art to detect the presence or absence of abnormality in each item.

As described above, in the spotting device, the specimen can be spotted at high speed regardless of the developing speed of the spotted body 23, so that the spotting time is short and the spotting position can be changed quickly. It can be done in time and the inspection efficiency is very good. Moreover,
Since the specimen spreads over the entire area before the reaction at the spotting center of the adherend 23 has proceeded too much, spot coloring or uneven coloring did not occur.

[0018]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the spotting method of the first aspect, the sample is spotted at a high speed, so that the spotting time can be shortened and the inspection efficiency is improved. Moreover, since the sample spreads over the entire spotted object in a short time, the reaction at the center of the spotting does not proceed too much, and problems such as spot coloring and uneven coloring do not occur, improving the measurement accuracy of the amount of reflected light. be able to. Further, when the discharge is performed at 1 to 2 m / s as in the spotting method according to claim 2, the spotted body having a slow developing speed is less likely to cause uneven coloring than the method according to claim 1. Become.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a spotting device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing the relationship between the discharge speed of the spotting device according to the present embodiment and the size of the gap between the nozzle and the spotted object.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a spotting state according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a spotting state of a spotting device according to a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Nozzle, 12 ... Syringe, 22 ... Test strip, 23
… The pointed body.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A gap size from a nozzle to a spotted object is set to about 2/3 or less of an inner diameter of the nozzle, and a sample is discharged from the nozzle at about 0.5 m / s or more and spotted on the spotted object. A method for spotting a specimen, which is characterized in that 2. The spotting method for a sample according to claim 1, wherein the discharge speed is 1 to 2 m / s.