JPH06138120A - Urine-sediment inspecting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to perform the accurate, integrated urine inspection by constituting the apparatus so that urine qualitative analysis and urine sediment analysis are performed with the same inspecting apparatus, and changing the measuring conditions of the urine sediment analysis basing on the result of the urine qualitative analysis. CONSTITUTION:An apparatus is constituted of a sample feeding part 1 having a sample dilluting mechanism, a sediment analysis part 2, which detects the formed component and processes the image, a qualitative analysis part 4, which analyzes qualitative items, and a control part 3, which controls and automates the sample feeding part 1 and the sediment analysis part 2 basing on the result of the qualitative analysis. Before the sediment analysis, the qualitative analysis 4 is performed, and the result is held in the control part 3 together with the specimen number. Thus, the operations of the feeding part 1 and the analysis part 2 are controlled. At first, the sample is separated and accepted from a sample container, which is set in the feeding part 1. The sample is dyed and made to flow into a flow cell. Meanwhile, the emitted light from a flash lamp is condensed on the sample in the flow cell. The particles passing an image sensing region are captured as the static image. The images are received with a TV and processed. At this time, the measuring time and the amount of the sample are controlled, and the accurate measured result is obtained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for analyzing formed particles in urine, which classifies image data obtained from individual particles by using an image processing technique and determines the number thereof. A device for counting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Since a urine test can be performed non-invasively, it is the most used clinical test as a medical examination and a screening test for new outpatients and inpatients. The urine test includes a urine qualitative analysis that performs a qualitative test for proteins, sugars, bilirubin, etc., a urinary sediment analysis that tests for formed components such as red blood cells, white blood cells, and epithelial cells, and a quantitative analysis. Qualitative analysis enables early detection of the basic signs of the disease, and if symptoms are observed in this test, then detailed chemical (quantitative analysis) and morphological (urine sediment) urine tests should be performed. Is effective.

Table 1 shows examples of sediment components and pathological conditions expected from the results of qualitative analysis.

Table 1 Example of relationship between qualitative analysis result and sediment component Qualitative analysis result Expected sediment component Pathology  Leukocyte positive leukocytes, leukocyte casts, granule casts pyelonephritis Trichomonas trichomoniasis bacterial urinary tract infection erythrocyte positive erythrocytes, tumor cells malignant tumor erythrocytes, protein-positive erythrocytes, erythrocyte casts, glomerulonephritis protein-positive granule casts, wax-like casts nephrotic syndrome nitrite Positive bacteria Urinary tract infection High PH bacteria Urinary tract infection Thus, urinary sediment components include red blood cells due to urinary bleeding,
Leukocytes and bacteria due to inflammation, epithelial cells from renal urinary tract tissues
Includes formed elements such as and columns. Therefore urine sedimentation
Residual examination can reveal morphological changes in the kidney and urinary tract.
It is an important test because it comes.

The conventional methods for these urine tests will be described below.

In the qualitative analysis, a test paper prepared by combining a plurality of test pieces coated with a reagent for each analysis item is dipped in urine, and a change in color of the test piece is visually compared with a reference color within a predetermined time. It is a thing. Positive / negative is judged based on the difference from this standard color. Recently, there is an apparatus for automatically measuring and recording the color change of a test piece by setting the test paper soaked in urine at a predetermined position of the measuring apparatus as described above.

On the other hand, the technique for urinary sediment examination requires many procedures as follows.

In the case of urine, since the concentration of formed components in urine is low, it is necessary to test the sample by centrifuging it in advance with a centrifuge. First, urine collected from a patient is collected from a urine cup into a Spitz tube, the urine sample is centrifuged, and the precipitate is unstained or stained to prepare a sample on a slide glass. After that, the specimen is observed under a microscope to classify the sediment components that can be observed within a certain visual field. At that time, it is possible to know what kind of sediment component is contained in the original urine sample and at what concentration by keeping the concentration rate of centrifugation constant and the amount of the sample to be observed constant.

Since the sediment components range from particles of several μm such as blood cells and bacteria to particles of several hundred μm such as cylinders, it is impossible to observe all particles with the microscope magnification kept constant. Can not. Therefore, it is necessary to switch the magnification of the microscope between high magnification and low magnification and observe the particles at the respective magnifications.

Since many such operations are required, the formed material is destroyed and the concentration is varied. Further, the number of particles to be visually observed is small and the number of working steps is large, which imposes a great burden on the inspection engineer.

Further, recently, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-105235, as a device for automating the observation and inspection work, a smear sample is not prepared and a sample sample is suspended in a liquid. A sample sample is passed through a flow cell with a specially shaped channel, where the particles in the sample are flowed through a wide imaging area, a static image is taken with a flash lamp and the image is used for particle analysis. There is.
When a magnified image of sample particles is projected on a CCD camera using a microscope, a flash lamp, which is a pulse light source, periodically emits light in synchronization with the operation of the CCD camera. The light emission time of the pulse light source is short, a still image can be obtained even when particles are continuously flowing, and the CCD camera can take 30 still images per second.

[0012] The description of this known example is only about the method of imaging particles, and there is no description about the relation with the result of qualitative analysis. Further, since the operation is performed only in the preset processing mode, there is no description of setting the measurement condition such that the measurement volume is increased or decreased for each sample depending on the result of the qualitative inspection.

[0013]

Since the qualitative analysis item and the sediment component are related to each other to some extent, for a sample found to have an abnormal component in the qualitative analysis, the sediment component related to the item is analyzed. It is necessary to focus on observation. In addition, when qualitative analysis items such as occult blood and white blood cells are positive, it is expected that the appearance frequency of red blood cells and white blood cells is high, so the obtained image data will be only specific particles, and other formed particles will be missed. The probability is high. In order to respond to these, it is necessary to change the measurement volume required for analysis.

However, the measurement conditions of the conventional urine sediment classification device are only the change of the predetermined measurement mode, and the measurement volume and the like cannot be arbitrarily changed from the qualitative analysis result for each sample. There is.

An object of the present invention is to provide a urine test apparatus capable of performing an accurate urine sediment test by changing the measurement conditions of the urine sediment analysis according to the result of the urine qualitative test.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a comprehensive urine test analyzer for performing a urine qualitative analysis test and a urine sediment analysis test with the same test device.

[0017]

In order to achieve the above object, the urine sediment inspecting apparatus has a function of changing the measurement condition for each sample with reference to the result of the urine qualitative analysis as a function of the urine sediment inspecting apparatus.

In order to achieve the above object, the urine qualitative analysis and the urine sediment analysis are performed by the same examination apparatus.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, the sample supply section is provided with a sample dilution mechanism.

[0020]

[Function] According to the result of the urine qualitative test, the measurement condition of the urine sediment analysis is automatically set and the test is performed, so that the accurate urine sediment result can be obtained.

Further, by automating these urine tests, it is possible to perform the urine tests, which have been performed separately in the past, by the same test apparatus, so that it is possible to reduce the burden on the technician.

[0022]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram of a urine sediment inspection apparatus including an embodiment of the present invention.

The urine sediment examination apparatus of the present invention comprises a sample supply unit 1, a sediment analysis unit for detecting and image-forming formed components, a qualitative analysis unit for analyzing qualitative items 4, and a sample supply based on the result of the qualitative analysis. The control unit 3 controls the measurement time and the like.

The result of the sample which has been qualitatively analyzed in advance is sent to the control unit 3 together with the sample number and held until the sediment inspection of the sample is started. When the sediment inspection of the relevant sample is started, the mechanism control unit 3 controls the operations of the sample supply unit 1 and the sediment analysis unit 2 based on the result of the qualitative analysis, and starts the measurement.

Next, as an embodiment of the present invention, the sediment classification unit will be described in detail with reference to FIG. Sample supply unit 1
From the sample container 11 set to the sample nozzle 1
The sample collected by 2 is discharged to the dyeing tank 201, and then dyed by the dyeing liquid 203 discharged in a fixed amount. The dyed sample is mixed with the sheath liquid 20 so as to form a flat sample flow in the central portion of the flow cell 202.
As it is surrounded by 4, it flows stably in the center of the flow cell.

On the other hand, the light emitted from the flash lamp 205, which is a microscope light source, travels on the optical axis of the microscope, passes through the condenser 210, and is focused on the sample in the flow cell 202. Since the light emission time of the flash lamp is short, the image of the particles that have passed through this imaging area is captured by the TV camera 207 as a still image. In the still image, the image processing unit 208 classifies particles. The data processing unit 209 collects the classified data and the number of them into the final result after the measurement.

The emission timing of the flash lamp 205 is controlled by a detection signal emitted by the particles passing through the particle detection area. The semiconductor laser 211 is always lit and is always focused on the particle detection region in the sample. Scattered light when particles pass through the detection area is detected by the particle detector 212, and if the particle detection signal has a predetermined signal level or higher, it is determined that the particles are image processing target particles, and the particles are in the image pickup area of the TV camera. When you reach a certain position,
The flash lamp 205 is controlled to light up.

For example, if the data sent from the qualitative analysis unit 4 is protein-positive, the granular components often include granular cylinders. However, since the number of cylinders is small, it is necessary to secure a large measurement capacity for detection. To this end, the flow cell 20 in the sediment analysis unit 2
Since the sample liquid of 2 flows at a constant flow rate, it can be realized by lengthening the measurement time. Therefore, the control unit 3
For the urine sediment analysis unit 2, the sample volume to be passed through the flow cell 202 is increased and the sequence is set so as to capture a large number of particle images. By doing this,
The probability of catching a column with a low appearance frequency increases, and it becomes possible to diagnose the pathological condition.

As another embodiment, when the data sent from the qualitative analysis unit 4 is occult blood-positive, the sediment component contains a large amount of red blood cells. Normally, a sample is measured as raw urine, but in such a specimen, red blood cells flow in a row, which makes particle detection and image processing difficult. Therefore, by providing the sample solution diluting mechanism 13 for diluting the sample solution in the sample supply unit 1 as shown in FIG. 3, the particles become sparse and detection and image processing are possible. This method can also be applied to the case of a specimen containing many white blood cells due to positive white blood cells.

Since all the numbers obtained by these operations are converted in the data processing unit 209 according to the measured capacity, the accurate number can be counted.

As another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the data receiving section receives the analysis result from the urine qualitative analyzer 6 installed outside the urinary sediment examination apparatus by, for example, a method by communication. Thus, it is possible to set conditions for urinary sediment analysis in the same manner as described above.

[0032]

Since the urine test device of the present invention has the above-described structure, it has the following effects.

Since urinary sediment classification can be performed by referring to the result after performing qualitative analysis in advance, accurate urinary sediment analysis can be performed even if the amount of sediment components is small or large. Further, since the urine qualitative analysis and the urine sediment test are performed by one device, it is possible to realize space saving and labor saving, and it is possible to improve work efficiency.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a urine sediment classification unit in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Sample supply unit, 2 ... Urine sediment classification unit, 3 ... Control unit,
4 ... Qualitative analysis part, 5 ... Data receiving part, 6 ... Urine qualitative analysis device, 11 ... Sample container, 12 ... Sampling nozzle,
13 ... Sample liquid dilution mechanism, 201 ... Staining tank, 202 ...
Flow cell, 203 ... Staining solution, 204 ... Sheath solution, 20
5 ... Flash lamp, 207 ... TV camera, 208 ...
Image processing unit, 209 ... Data processing unit, 210 ... Condenser lens, 211 ... Semiconductor laser, 212 ... Particle detector.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A flow cell capable of flowing a sample liquid containing particles as a flat flow, having a particle detection region and an imaging region, and a particle detection unit for detecting particles passing through the particle detection region, Urine sediment inspection apparatus including an imaging unit that captures a still image of the particles in the imaging region, an image processing unit that processes the obtained still image, and a sample liquid supply unit that supplies a sample liquid to the flow cell. 2. A urinary sediment examination apparatus, wherein the measurement conditions for analyzing the urinary sediment component of the sample liquid are automatically changed for each sample by referring to the result of urine qualitative analysis measured in advance. 2. The urinary sediment examination apparatus according to claim 1,
A sample liquid supply mechanism capable of setting a plurality of sample containers is made common, and further, by having a urine qualitative analysis unit and a urine sediment analysis unit, urine qualitative analysis and urine sediment analysis are performed by the same measuring device. Urine sediment inspection device. 3. The urinary sediment examination apparatus according to claim 1,
A urinary sediment inspection apparatus characterized by automatically changing the measurement volume or time for urinary sediment analysis when an abnormal value is detected in at least one of white blood cells, red blood cells, and proteins as a qualitative analysis item. 4. The urinary sediment examination apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
A urinary sediment examination apparatus, which is characterized in that when an abnormal value is found in the pH or other items of the qualitative analysis items, the measurement volume or the measurement time of the urine sediment analysis is automatically changed. 5. The urinary sediment examination apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
A urinary sediment inspection apparatus comprising a sample dilution mechanism for diluting a sample and then performing urinary sediment analysis when abnormalities are detected in white blood cells or red blood cells, which are qualitative analysis items. 6. The urinary sediment examination apparatus according to claim 2,
An automatic analyzer characterized in that when the processing capability of the sediment classification unit is lower than that of the qualitative analysis unit, the device automatically determines the sampling order and performs analysis.