JPH0572210A - Apparatus and method for automatic analysis - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To integrate an operation of centrifugal separation for taking out only serum from blood with an operation of analysis of the serum taken out and thereby to simplify and automate the operations, by using a capillary tube as a centrifugal vessel and a reaction vessel for the analysis. CONSTITUTION:This apparatus is constructed of a capillary tube 7 which is formed of a transparent member and wherein an area wherein blood is put, an area wherein blood cells and serum are separated from each other and an area which contains a reagent and develops color in a chemical reaction with the serum are provided inside, a disk 1 whereon the capillary tube 7 is fixed so that the axial direction thereof is in the direction of the radius of the disk and which rotates at a high speed, a light source 11 which applies a light to the color-developing area of the capillary tube 7 fixed on the disk 1, a detector which receives the light applied to the capillary tube 7, and a computing-controlling means which executes analysis on the basis of an output signal of this detector, and an operation of centrifugal separation of the serum and an operation of measurement and analysis of absorbance are executed by one operation. For the light source 11, a laser light source is used, for instance.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer and an automatic analysis method, and more particularly to an automatic analyzer and an automatic analysis method suitable for a biochemical test in a clinical test.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional general structure of an automatic analyzer for clinical examination will be described. In this device, first, blood is taken from a patient, put in a test tube, and the test tube is placed in a centrifuge to centrifuge the collected blood to obtain serum. Then, the obtained serum is set in the analyzer and the concentration of the component in the serum is measured. A specific analysis procedure in the automatic analyzer will be described.
In the analyzer, after setting the serum in the sample cup,
A fixed amount of serum is collected, and the collected serum is injected into the reaction cell. A certain amount of reagent is added to the serum in the cell and a chemical reaction is performed to cause color development. In this state, the absorbance of the coloring liquid at a specific wavelength is measured. When the absorbance is measured, the absorbance data is sent to a computer, and the computer calculates based on the measured data to calculate the concentration of the component in serum. Then, the density data is output to the printer.

[0003]

In the configuration of the conventional general automatic analyzer described above, the sample that can be set in the automatic analyzer is serum or plasma after centrifugation. Blood is composed of blood cell components and coagulation components such as platelets, and liquid components such as serum.When measuring blood serum components, when blood cell components are present at the same time, the concentration of blood cell components is Since it is significantly different from the component concentration of, accurate measurement cannot be performed. Therefore, it is essential to remove blood cell components from blood. As described above, in the conventional automatic analyzer, the blood itself containing the blood cell component cannot be set as a sample, so the operation of centrifuging blood and the operation of analysis are divided into only the serum separated by the centrifuge. The operator had to carry it to the automatic analyzer, set it as a sample, and restart the analyzer. For this reason,
When transferring the serum from the centrifuge to the automatic analyzer,
There was a problem that the sample was mistaken for other patients and it took time to transfer. Further, as a conventional technique using centrifugal separation, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-58
-53759, JP-A-62-34057, JP-A-1
There is one described in each publication of No. 199159. JP-A-58-53759 and JP-A-1-199159.
Each of the publications discloses means for placing blood in a capillary and using centrifugation to construct and separate capillaries for collecting serum or blood cells from the blood. The operation of centrifugation itself is already known, and even with these conventional techniques, in order to perform analysis, the operator must transport the collected serum or the like to the location of the automatic analyzer and set it as a sample. There is. Also, JP-A-62-34
In the analytical blood sample adjusting device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 057, a blood sample is put into a thin tube, a serum sample is extracted from the blood by a centrifugal separation action, and the serum sample is analyzed by a rotor without manual operation by an operator. The structure which moves to is shown. However, in the configuration of this analyzer, a capillary tube for performing centrifugal separation and a configuration in which the separated serum is taken out from the capillary tube and moved to a cuvette for performing analysis, the device configuration and control are It has the drawback of complexity.

The object of the present invention is to simplify the operation by utilizing a capillary tube as a centrifuge container and an analysis container to integrate the centrifugation operation for taking out only serum from blood and the analysis operation for taken out serum. An object is to provide an automatic analyzer and an automatic analysis method intended for automation.

[0005]

An automatic analyzer according to the present invention is formed of a transparent member, and inside thereof, an area for inserting blood, an area for separating blood cells and serum, and a chemical reaction with serum containing reagents. Irradiate light to the capillary tube that has a coloring area and the capillary tube so that its axial direction is in the radial direction, and to rotate the disk at high speed and the coloring area of the capillary tube fixed to this disk. Light source, a detector for receiving the light irradiated on the capillary tube, and an arithmetic / control means for performing analysis based on the output signal of the detector. In the above structure, the detector is composed of a diffraction grating and an array type silicon photodiode, and the diffraction grating is arranged so as to receive the light transmitted through the capillary tube. In the above structure, the light source is a laser light source, and the detector is adapted to receive the laser light transmitted through the capillary tube. In the above configuration, the detector is arranged so as to detect at least one of the forward scattered light and the back scattered light, which is generated as a result of the laser light from the laser light source being applied to the capillary. Is characterized by. The automatic analysis method according to the present invention, a blood cell separation region, in a transparent capillary tube having a coloring region containing a reagent that chemically reacts with serum, put the blood to be analyzed,
By fixing the capillary tube to the rotating disk and rotating the disk at high speed, the blood cells are captured in the blood cell separation area in the capillary tube, only the serum is moved to the color development area, and the serum and the reagent cause a chemical reaction in the color development area. It is characterized in that the concentration of the serum is measured by measuring the absorbance in this color-developed state.

[0006]

In the automatic analyzer and the automatic analysis method according to the present invention, the blood of the patient to be analyzed is put in a capillary tube, the capillary tube is set on a disk, and the disk is rotated at high speed. When the disk is rotated at high speed, the blood put in one end of the capillary moves to the other end by centrifugal force, but since there is a blood cell separation region that captures blood cell components in the middle, only serum components are provided. , Move to the coloring area and cause a chemical reaction with the reagent. With respect to the color-developed state generated by this chemical reaction, absorbance is measured with a light source, a detector, and an arithmetic / control means to calculate the serum concentration. This allows you to put blood in a capillary tube, set the capillary tube on a disk, and then perform the centrifugation operation of blood cells and serum and the automatic analysis operation on the extracted serum without interruption, In (1), it is possible to obtain the analysis data easily and without error, without the need of manually transferring the serum sample to the analyzer.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 conceptually shows the configuration of an automatic analyzer according to the present invention having both a centrifugal separation function and an analysis function. Reference numeral 1 denotes a disc, which is rotatably attached to a rotation support portion (not shown). A friction wheel 3 is fixed to the rotary shaft 2 of the disk 1. Reference numeral 4 is a drive motor for rotating the disk 1, and another friction wheel 6 is fixed to the output shaft 5. The friction wheel 6 contacts the friction wheel 3 and transmits the rotation of the drive motor 4 to the disc 1. The operation of the drive motor 4 is controlled by the CPU 17 having a calculation / control function. The disk 1 is the rotational power of the drive motor 4,
For example, it rotates at a high speed of 3000 rpm or more.

On the disk 1, at least one capillary tube 7 is arranged in the radial direction. The capillaries 7 are arranged in slits 8 formed in the disk 1 in the radial direction. As shown in FIG. 3, the slit 8 is formed such that the width on the upper surface side of the disk 1 is slightly larger than the diameter of the capillary tube 7, and the width on the lower surface side is gradually smaller and smaller than the diameter of the capillary tube 7. To be done. Therefore, the capillary tube 7
Are set in the slit 8 from above and do not fall below the disc 1. Further, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a circumferential groove 9 is formed at the end of the slit 8 on the disk circumferential side, and a stopper 10 is arranged in this groove 9. Due to the presence of the stopper 10, the movement of the capillary tube 7 in the radial direction is restricted by the stopper 10, and
Even when the rotation speed is high, the centrifugal force generated by the rotation does not cause the capillary tube 7 to pop out. When the disk 1 rotates at high speed, a large centrifugal force is applied to the capillary tube 7.

A light source 11 for irradiating the disk with light 12 is disposed above the disk 1. A diffraction grating 13 is arranged at a position below the disc 1 so as to correspond to the light source 11. The diffraction grating 13 has a function of dispersing the light 12 from the light source 11 that has passed through the capillary tube 7 on the disc 1.
Reference numeral 14 denotes an array type silicon photodiode, which detects the light of each wavelength dispersed by the diffraction grating 13 by the corresponding photodiode. Each detection signal of each photodiode of the array type silicon photodiode 14 is
It is amplified by the corresponding amplifier 15 ... And each signal is converted into a digital signal by the analog-digital converter 16,
The data is transmitted to the CPU 17 which processes data. The CPU 17 calculates the density and controls the entire device. Reference numeral 18 is a display device for displaying the concentration obtained by calculation, and 19 is a constant temperature bath for keeping the disk 1 and the capillary tube 7 at a constant temperature of 37 ° C., for example.

Next, the structure of the capillary tube 7 will be described with reference to FIG. The capillary tube 7 is formed of, for example, transparent glass or transparent plastic. The inside of the capillary tube 7 is composed of a region into which blood of the patient to be analyzed is put, a blood cell separation region 20 for removing blood cells in the blood, and a coloring region 21 for reacting the extracted serum with the reagent. It exists in the blood-filling area of the capillary tube 22
Is the patient's blood. The blood 22 of the patient is injected from the opening at the left end of the capillary tube 7 in FIG. Capillary tube 7
The right end portion 23 of the is open in the illustrated example,
It is also possible to dispose a filter having the function of removing air and preventing scattering. In the state where the capillary tube 7 is arranged on the disc 1, the capillary tube 7 is arranged so that the light 12 emitted from the light source 11 passes through the coloring area.

The operation of the automatic analyzer having the above structure will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 2, with the blood 22 of the patient to be inspected in the capillary tube 7, the capillary tube 7 is arranged in the space of the slit 8 of the disk 1. At this time, a stopper 10 is provided to regulate the radial movement of the capillary tube 7. Next, drive the drive motor 4,
The disk 1 is rotated at high speed for about 5 minutes. Due to the high speed rotation of the disk 1, centrifugal force is applied to the blood 22,
The blood 22 is moved toward the coloring area 21.
However, since the blood cell separation region 20 exists on the way,
Blood cells are removed from the blood 22 in this region 20, and only serum moves to the coloring region 21. When the serum moves to the coloring region 21, the serum and the reagent contained in the coloring region 21 cause a chemical reaction, and this chemical reaction causes the coloring region 21 to develop a color. The centrifugal action and blood cell separation region 2 described above.
The separation of serum and blood cells by 0, the transfer of only serum to the coloring region 21, and the coloring action by the chemical reaction between the serum and the reagent in the coloring region 21 are performed while the disc 1 is rotating. After the disc 1 started to rotate, it was confirmed that sufficient color was produced in the color development area 21.
1 to the capillary tube 7. The light 12 that has passed through the coloring region 21 of the capillary tube 7 is incident on the diffraction grating 13. The light incident on the diffraction grating 13 is spectrally separated, and then detected by the array type silicon photodiode 14 as an electric signal. The detected electric signal is amplified to a required level by the corresponding amplifier 15, converted into a digital signal by the analog / digital converter 16, and then supplied to the CPU 17. In the CPU 17,
Based on the input detection data, the absorbance is calculated and the concentration of the component in serum is calculated. The parameters already stored in the memory are used to calculate the density.

As described above, in the analysis method carried out by the automatic analyzer according to the present invention, the blood 22 of the patient is separated into blood cells and serum by the centrifugal action, and only the serum is removed, and the extracted serum is removed. An analytical operation of chemically reacting the reagent in the coloring area 21 and analyzing the absorbance in that state using the light source 11, the diffraction grating 13 and the array type silicon photodiode 14, and the automatic analyzer for the extracted serum from the centrifuge Can be performed at about the same time on the disk 1 without having to transfer to. Therefore, as an operator, the patient's blood is put into the capillary tube 7, and the capillary tube 7 is inserted into
All you have to do is to set it in the slit position and operate the automatic analyzer.

When measuring the absorbance with the light 12 of the light source 11, the disk 1 may be rotating or may be stationary. When the disc 1 is rotated, the measurement data is obtained periodically. Further, in order to perform the measurement with the disk 1 stationary, the capillary tube 7 is
The disc 1 needs to be stationary so that it is set in the path of the light 12.

Next, a modified embodiment of the automatic analyzer of the present invention will be described. 6 to 8, only a partial configuration relating to the main part of the automatic analyzer is shown, and other configurations not shown are the same as those in the above-mentioned embodiment. Further, in each of the drawings, the same elements described in the above embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals.

In FIG. 6, a laser light source 31 which outputs a laser light 32 having a constant wavelength is used as a light source arranged above the disc 1. A detector 33 receives the laser light 32. The capillary 7 is set in the path of the laser light 32 in order to make the disc 1 stationary and measure the absorbance. The laser light 32 emitted from the laser light source 31 is vertically incident on the coloring area of the capillary tube 7. The detector 33 detects the intensity of the laser light 32 that has entered the coloring region of the capillary 7. This detection signal is amplified by the amplifier 15 and transmitted to the computer side. The subsequent processing of the data is the same as in the case of the above embodiment.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 7 has basically the same structure as that of the embodiment shown in FIG. The difference is that the arrangement position of the detector 33 is changed. The detector 33 is arranged so as to detect the laser light which is inclined and inclined at 45 ° after passing through the capillary tube 7. The detector 33 detects backscattering of the laser light 32 in the capillary 7.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 8 is obtained by further improving the structure of the embodiment shown in FIG. That is, the laser light source 31 is used as a light source, and the upper and lower sides of the disc 1 are
Each of the detectors 33 and 34 is arranged at an angle of 45 ° with respect to the laser light 32. Each detector 33,
An amplifier 15 is provided at 34. The detector 33 detects the backscattering of the laser light 32 in the capillary tube 7, the detector 34 detects the forward scattering of the laser light 32, and then the CPU calculates the respective concentrations.

The detector may be arranged at any angle within the range of 30 ° to 150 ° with respect to the laser beam.

[0019]

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the following effects are brought about. According to the automatic analyzer and the automatic analysis method according to the present invention, the operation of centrifuging blood cells and serum from the blood of the patient to be analyzed, chemically reacting the collected serum with a reagent, and measuring the absorbance to measure serum The operation to calculate the concentration can be performed continuously with one operation without human intervention, which simplifies the device configuration and eliminates mistakes in sample mixing, simplifying the entire operation. The analysis time is shortened, which is extremely convenient especially for emergency inspection.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram schematically showing a main part of an automatic analyzer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of a capillary tube.

FIG. 3 is a partial end view showing the peripheral structure of a capillary attachment portion of a disc.

FIG. 4 is a partial end view in which a stopper is arranged in FIG.

5 is a partial plan view of the structure shown in FIG. 4 viewed from above.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a modified embodiment of the light source and the detector.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing another modified embodiment of the light source and the detector.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing another modified embodiment of the light source and the detector.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 Disk 4 Drive Motor 7 Capillary Tube 8 Slit 9 Groove 10 Stopper 11 Light Source 13 Diffraction Grating 14 Array Silicon Photodiode 17 CPU (Calculation / Control Means) 20 Blood Cell Separation Area 21 Coloring Area 22 Blood 31 Laser Light Source 32 Laser light 33 detector

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A capillary tube, which is formed of a transparent member and has an area for containing blood, an area for separating blood cells and serum, and an area that contains a reagent and develops a color when chemically reacted with serum, and the capillary tube. A disk that is fixed so that its axial direction is directed in the radial direction and rotates at high speed, a light source that irradiates light to the color-developing region of the capillary tube fixed to this disk, and the light that is irradiated to the capillary tube. An automatic analyzer characterized by comprising a detector for receiving and a calculation / control means for performing analysis based on an output signal of the detector. 2. The automatic analyzer according to claim 1, wherein
The automatic analyzer is characterized in that the detector comprises a diffraction grating and an array type silicon photodiode, and the diffraction grating is arranged so as to receive light transmitted through the capillary tube. 3. The automatic analyzer according to claim 1, wherein
The said light source is a laser light source, The said detector was made to receive the laser beam which permeate | transmits the said capillary, The automatic analyzer characterized by the above-mentioned. 4. The automatic analyzer according to claim 3,
The detector is arranged so as to detect at least one of forward scattered light and back scattered light, which is generated as a result of irradiation of a capillary with laser light from the laser light source. Automatic analyzer. 5. The blood to be analyzed is put into a transparent capillary tube having a blood cell separation area and a coloring area containing a reagent that chemically reacts with serum, and the capillary tube is fixed to a rotating disk,
By rotating the disk at a high speed, blood cells are captured in the blood cell separation area in the capillary, only serum is moved to the color development area, and the serum and the reagent cause a chemical reaction in the color development area to develop color, The automatic analysis method is characterized in that the concentration of serum is measured by measuring the absorbance for this color-developed state.