JPH05307042A - Automatic blood analyzing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To establish effective analysis of blood by judging whether a specimen is proper or not before the specimen is poured dividedly in a reaction vessel. CONSTITUTION:A dilution vessel 10 is at a standstill during dispensing operation with a nozzle 9 for dispensing a specimen and a dilute liquid, and meantime, sensing of the blood vessels in the vessel 10 is performed. Signals given by blood vessel sensors 21a, 21b are amplified by an amplifier 23 and stored in CPU 24, which is connected with a dilute specimen dispensing system 25, reagent dispensing system 26, data processing system 27, and CRT picture plane 28. When the measured amount of blood vessels differs significantly from a set amount of blood vessels, continued operation is stopped, and automatically the inspection of the same specimen is conducted from the stage of dispensing of specimen. When inclusion of blood vessels is sensed, also the continued operation is stopped, and the inspection of the same is conducted automatically.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic hematology analyzer utilizing an antigen-antibody reaction used in clinical tests and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a blood test, blood is collected from a patient, the blood is centrifuged, and blood cells and serum are separated in a single sample container for use in a testing device. In this blood test apparatus, there are a case where only blood cells are used as a sample and a case where only serum is used. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 4, the inside of the sample container 3 containing the blood cells 1 and the serum 2 that have been centrifuged. The sample-dispensing nozzle 4 was made to invade, and the sample was separately collected while adjusting the degree of intrusion.

The collected sample is dispensed into a required number of dilution containers and then diluted to a required dilution ratio. Next, the diluted sample is dispensed into a reaction container, and a prescribed amount of a reagent is further dispensed to cause an agglutination reaction by an antigen-antibody binding reaction. Next, the aggregation pattern in the reaction vessel is optically measured to determine the inspection. Such an inspection method is well known, and is disclosed in many documents including Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-16875.

As an inspection using blood cells as a sample,
For example, there is a test for erythrocyte type (ABO type), and in this case, antiserum is used as a reagent. Further, tests using serum include various antibodies, viruses, etc., and various antigens are used as reagents in this case. In addition, immunoprecipitation and RP have been conventionally used as infectious disease tests using serum.
Although HA, RIA, EIA and the like are known, RPHA (reverse passive hemagglutination method) is frequently used in terms of simplicity, cost, determination accuracy and the like. Also, RPHA is frequently used in blood type tests.

The agglutination method among the above-mentioned various inspection methods is caused by an antigen-antibody reaction by introducing a blood cell reagent in which a component that specifically reacts with a substance to be measured contained in a serum sample is fixed to animal blood cells and the like. It is a method of determining the presence or absence of the substance to be inspected based on the presence or absence of aggregation. FIG. 5 shows the aggregation pattern as a result of the antigen-antibody reaction. A is a non-aggregation image, B is an aggregation image, C is an aggregation image when blood cells are mixed, and D is non-aggregation when blood cells are mixed. It is a statue. Therefore, when blood cells were dispensed together with serum, the blood cells did not contribute to the reaction with the reagent and thus accumulated in the central portion as shown in FIG. 5C, and it was determined that the antigen-antibody reaction did not occur. There is a risk that This may cause erroneous determination in blood type and infectious disease tests.

[0006] Therefore, visually observing the reaction container after the reaction, the amount of dispensed blood cells is not significantly different in the case of an inspection using blood cells as a sample, or blood cells are mixed when serum is used as a sample. I checked one by one to see if it was done. Without such visual observation, when serum was used as a sample, when blood cells were sucked up by suction pressure near the nozzle tip when aspirating with the nozzle due to the small amount of serum sample, or blood cells were used as a sample. In this case, if the dispensed amount of blood cells is significantly different from the set amount, the aggregation pattern may become abnormal and the test result may be erroneous.

[0007]

In the conventional method as described above, for example, in the case of performing a test using serum as a sample, in a hospital or the like, the test result must be obtained in real time and the patient must be treated. It is impossible to determine whether blood cells have been mixed until after. Furthermore, in hospitals, etc., the samples come one after another, so the samples that should be retested should be collected at the end. As a result, the test results were delayed and the patient's waiting time became long, and eventually the test results could not be known on that day, and the patient was forced to visit the hospital again. A blood analysis using the antigen-antibody reaction usually requires about 1 hour for the reaction time.

Furthermore, since the final judgment is based on the visual observation of a person, the judgment criteria may be different depending on the person who observes it.
Misjudgment may occur. 1 sample to inspect
There are facilities such as 1000 per day, so there is a limit to the visual observation. Further, when the re-inspection is performed based on the result of visual observation, the reagent used is also expensive, which is a cost problem.

Further, in the case of a test using serum as a sample, the agglutination pattern should normally be as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, but when blood cells are mixed, the agglutination pattern is shown in FIGS. 5C and D.
As a result, there is a risk that the judgment will be incorrect. Further, in the case of an examination using blood cells as a sample, the accuracy of blood cells may be extremely low due to the high viscosity of the blood cells. That is, when the amount of dispensed blood cells is larger than the set value, the dark part in the central part of the aggregation pattern becomes large, and when it is small, it becomes small. However, these results also have the above problems because they are visually judged after the reaction is completed.

The present invention is proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an automatic blood analyzer for determining the suitability of a sample before dispensing the sample into a reaction container to improve the efficiency of blood analysis is provided. It is intended to be provided.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a diluting container for mixing a sample and a diluting solution, a means for measuring the concentration of blood cells in the diluting container, and an abnormal blood cell concentration in the diluting container. In the case of, a means for notifying the test result of the sample is provided,
The automatic blood analyzer is configured to stop the processing of the sample and / or perform the automatic retest based on the test result.

[0012]

[Function] Since abnormal blood cell concentration in the dilution container is obtained as information in advance in this way, it is possible to confirm in advance that it is an inappropriate sample based on this, and it is said that these will be reexamined after all samples have been examined. Such a situation can be avoided. Also,
It is possible to prevent waste of a reagent to be added to an inappropriate sample.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automatic hematology analyzer based on immunological agglutination reaction, in which a microplate 14 having a plurality of reaction vessels 15 set thereon is placed on the apparatus body 5. The microplate 14 has a plurality of reaction vessel rows which are separated from each other and arranged in a matrix. Since 12 containers in the vertical direction and 10 containers in the horizontal direction are arranged here, a maximum of 12 kinds of reagents can be dispensed for one sample, and a maximum of 10 samples can be inspected.

Next, the structure of this apparatus and the analysis work by the apparatus will be described. First, the sample container 6 is placed on the device body 5.
The case 7 having the above is placed, and the sample is dispensed into the dilution container 10 through the sample dispensing nozzle 9 connected to the sample dispensing syringe pump 8. The sample dispensing nozzle 9 that has completed dispensing is cleaned by performing suction / discharge operation in the sample cleaning tank 11a. Next, the diluting liquid is dispensed into the diluting container 10 via the diluting liquid syringe pump 12 connected to the diluting liquid container 20 and the diluting nozzle 13 connected to the diluting liquid syringe 20 to prepare a diluted sample.

The diluted sample thus prepared is dispensed by the sample dispensing nozzle 9 into the reaction container 15 set in the microplate 14. Dispense diluted sample 1
After the completion of the operation, the sample dispensing nozzle 9 is replaced with the sample cleaning tank 1
After washing with 1a, the next diluted sample is dispensed into the reaction container 15 of the microplate 14. The sample dispensing nozzle 9
Can move in the X, Y, and Z directions.

The dilution container 10 intermittently moves in the row direction below the opening frame 5a formed in the apparatus main body 5 and stops immediately below the tip of the dilution nozzle 13. Also,
The dilution container 10 is held by the holding member 22 at a height such that it does not collide with the opening frame 5 a and the tip of the dilution nozzle 13. Further, the holding member 22 is an endless belt conveyor 2
It is fixed at 9 (FIG. 2) and is transferred at a predetermined pitch by a step motor (not shown).

After the diluted sample is dispensed from the diluting container 10 to each well of the reaction container 15, the diluting container 10 is further transferred, circulated and held in an inverted state, and the washing water is washed by the washing nozzle. Wash by jetting, drain thoroughly or dry with dry air before reuse.
While the diluting container 10 is being transferred, the diluting container 10 stops just below the tip of the diluting nozzle 13 as described above, but this position is shown in FIGS. 2 (perspective view) and 3 (cross-sectional view). It is also the position detected by 21a and 21b.

That is, the diluting container 10 stopped immediately below the diluting nozzle 13 is stopped during the diluting liquid dispensing operation and the dispensing operation by the sample dispensing nozzle 9, but the diluting container 10 inside the diluting container 10 is stopped during this period. Detects blood cells. The sample dispensing nozzle 9
An electrode 9a for detecting the liquid level is provided near
Either blood cells or serum is separated from the separated blood contained in the sample container 6 and dispensed into the dilution container 10. The diluted container 10 that has received the dispensing proceeds to one step and receives the diluted liquid dispensed by the dilution nozzle 13. Here, the diluting liquid injected from the diluting nozzle 13 is swirled in the diluting container 10 and appropriately stirred. At this time, the blood cell detection sensors 21a and 21b are activated to measure the blood cell volume in the dilution container 10. One of the blood cell detection sensors 21 is a photometric means and the other is a light receiving means. The lower part of the diluting container 10 is fitted into a holding member 22 that moves below the diluting container 10 in FIG. 1 to dilute as shown in FIG. The blood cells are detected by irradiating the lower portion of the container 10 with light.

The signals from the blood cell detection sensors 21a and 21b are amplified by the AHP (amplifier) 23 and stored in the CPU 24. The CPU 24 is connected to a diluted sample dispensing system 25, a reagent dispensing system 26, a data processing system 27, and a CRT screen 28. Therefore, in the case of a test using blood cells, when the measured blood cell volume is significantly different from the set blood cell volume, the subsequent operation is stopped and the same sample is automatically added from the sample dispensing stage. Inspect. Further, in the case of a test using serum as a sample, when the mixture of blood cells is detected, the subsequent operation is stopped and the same sample is automatically tested as described above.

When it is determined that the sample is a proper diluted sample, the reagent is dispensed from one of the reagent containers 16 containing the reagents corresponding to a plurality of items prepared on the apparatus main body 5 thereafter. A desired reagent is dispensed into the reaction container 15 via the reagent dispensing nozzle 17 connected to the syringe pump 18. This reagent dispensing nozzle 17 is also in the X direction,
It can be moved in the Y and Z directions. The reagent dispensing nozzle 17 that has completed the dispensing operation is the reagent cleaning tank 11
It moves to b and is washed by suction and discharge operation. Next, in order to determine the particle aggregation pattern in the reaction container 8, the reaction container 1
After allowing the sample in 5 to react for a specified time, light is transmitted and the light is measured by the imaging camera 19 to make a determination.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, but various modifications and variations are possible. For example, if the blood cell amount detected by the blood cell detection sensor is set to a concentration that does not lead to an erroneous determination and the analysis is continued if the blood cell amount is equal to or lower than this concentration, the processing efficiency is improved. Also, in the case of analysis using serum, the concentration of red blood cells mixed in is temporarily determined by the CPU.
If the data processing system is configured so that the judgment is made after the measurement result is corrected as usual, the sample can be analyzed accurately without waste.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, since it is possible to determine the suitability of a sample before dispensing the sample into the reaction container, it is possible to carry out retesting from the same sample. Compared with the conventional re-inspection, which has been known, it is possible to significantly reduce the time and improve inspection work.
Further, by immediately stopping the reagent dispensing after determining that the blood cells have been sucked and dispensed, it is possible to prevent the waste of the expensive reagent.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an analyzer used in the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a blood cell detection sensor.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a blood cell detection sensor.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a separated state of serum and blood cells.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an aggregated state of a sample.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 Device Main Body 6 Sample Container 7 Case 8 Sample Dispensing Syringe 9 Sample Dispensing Nozzle 9a Electrode 10 Dilution Container 11 Sample Washing Tank 12 Diluent Syringe Pump 13 Dilution Nozzle 14 Microplate 15 Reaction Container 16 Reagent Container 17 Reagent Dispensing nozzle 18 Reagent dispensing syringe pump 19 Imaging camera 20 Diluent container

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A dilution container for mixing a sample with a diluent, means for measuring the concentration of blood cells in the dilution container, and means for notifying the test result of the sample when the concentration of blood cells in the dilution container is abnormal,
An automatic hematology analyzer characterized by stopping the processing of a sample and / or performing an automatic retest based on the result of this test.