JPH08154922A - Blood sampler - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To enable automatical sampling of blood in safety, quickly and accurately free from a difference in skill of a blood sampling person by a method wherein a moving means is controlled so that the tip of a needle member matches the position of a blood vessel based on information from an image pickup means to operate a needle drive means at the matched position. CONSTITUTION: A holder 2 is turned downward to set the tip of a needle 21 so that it reaches the origin position within an XY coordinate system of an area to be observed and then, the observation of the surface of skin within the XY coordinate system is started. A control section 10 processes an input image brought in by an image pickup element 5 as image information to recognize a blood vessel the nearest the origin position within the XY coordinate system, namely, the position of the tip part of the needle 21 as blood vessel to be sampled and a deviation value is calculated between the position of the blood vessel recognized and the origin position. Then, a signal corresponding to the deviation value is outputted to a positioning adjustment mechanism 11 and with the driving of the positioning adjustment mechanism 11, a position adjusting member 12 moves in the direction to the origin position from the position of the blood vessel desired to sample blood.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a blood collecting device capable of automatically collecting blood.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the medical field, it has been necessary to collect human blood for clinical tests and research analyses. As a general blood sampling method, a blood sampling operator connects a tourniquet to the upper arm of the blood sampling subject to raise a relatively thick vein near the body surface, visually confirms the blood vessel, and then punctures the blood vessel with an injection needle. And inhale.

However, in such a blood sampling method manually performed by a person, if the blood sampling operator is not skilled, accurate puncture of a blood vessel is difficult, and pain and puncture at the time of puncture and damage to living tissue occur. Therefore, an apparatus capable of automatic blood collection has been considered for the purpose of more rapid and accurate puncture / blood collection without resorting to human hands. Specifically, in order to reduce pain and tissue damage at the time of blood sampling, research on a blood sampling device that mimics the blood-feeding mechanism of mosquitoes has been conducted, and a prototype is being manufactured.

The mosquito's mouth-needle bundle is composed of the upper lip, a pair of large armor
Six parts of a pair of small arms are configured as a mouth needle piece, and the lower lip serves as a mouth needle sheath to accommodate this.
Teeth are lined up at the tip of the outer limbs on the outermost side of the mouth-needle bundle, and when the small limbs are hammered into the skin tissue alternately left and right, the mouth-needle bundle passes through the skin tissue. Punctured into microvessels near all body surfaces. Blood is pumped to the esophagus through a long tubular upper lip with an open lower side by a blood-sucking pump consisting of a double-ball of an oral pump and a pharyngeal pump.

What mimics such a mosquito suction mechanism actually focuses on the thinness of the mouth-needle bundle, which is the main factor that does not cause the subject to feel pain when the mosquito sucks blood. Specifically, the tip of a glass micropipette is stretched while heating, thinned and further polished to form a blood collection needle, which is connected to a commercially available syringe via a polyvinyl chloride tube, and this syringe is aspirated. It is used as a pump.

[0006]

However, the blood sampling device imitating the blood-sucking mechanism of mosquitoes as described above is merely a research prototype for confirming the possibility of blood sampling by the device, and diversion of the existing device, It was just a close together.
In other words, a micromanipulator device is combined with a blood suction mechanism that is simply a glass micropipette and the cylinder of an existing syringe is connected by a tube, and the needle puncture is visually confirmed on a monitor. , Complicated and far from practical use. A practical level blood collecting device configured for the purpose of simple and automatic blood collection has not yet been realized.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to obtain a blood collecting apparatus which enables safe, rapid and accurate automatic blood collection without being affected by the difference in skill of blood collecting persons.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, in the blood collecting apparatus according to the invention of claim 1, an illumination optical system and a body surface for irradiating a predetermined region of the body surface of the blood sampling subject. An imaging means having an observation optical system for observing the blood vessel in the region through the blood vessel, a replaceable needle member and a blood storage container for puncturing the blood vessel to collect blood, and an inner hole of the needle member. Collecting means having a blood collecting operation mechanism for collecting blood in a blood storage container, moving means for relatively moving the needle member with respect to the blood vessel, and needle driving for piercing / extracting the needle member with respect to the blood vessel And a control means for controlling the moving means so that the tip of the needle member and the blood vessel position match based on the information from the imaging means, and operating the needle driving means at the matching position. It is a thing.

Further, in the blood collecting apparatus according to a second aspect of the invention, in the blood collecting apparatus according to the first aspect, the control means controls blood collection by the blood collecting operation mechanism after puncturing the needle member with a blood vessel. To do.

[0010]

According to the present invention, first, in the image pickup means, the illumination optical system illuminates a predetermined area on the body surface of the blood sampling subject, and the observation optical system observes the area to recognize the position of the blood vessel. . In this case, the recognizable blood vessel depends on the optical accuracy such as the resolution of the observation optical system provided here, but among the several blood vessels observed by the observation optical system, the tip of the needle member at the time of initial setting It is most desirable to recognize the one closest to the position as the target (blood collection target) blood vessel because alignment becomes easy.

The position information of the blood vessel recognized here is output to the control means, and based on this information, the control means moves the needle member relative to the blood vessel so that the tip of the needle member matches the blood vessel position. To control the means of transportation. As the blood vessel position information, for example, a method in which a coordinate system is set in advance for the illumination / observation region and the amount of deviation from the needle member tip position in the coordinate system is detected from the blood vessel coordinate position in this coordinate system is simple. Is. The control means may control the moving means so as to eliminate this displacement amount.

The moving means may be a mechanism for moving the blood collecting means on the side of the needle member, or a mechanism for moving the blood vessel side by controlling the skin fixing means for restraining the skin in the observed region, for example. The control of the skin fixing means means that the skin expands and contracts to some extent. Therefore, the blood vessel moves together with the skin tissue by moving the fixing means while the skin in the observation region (blood sampling region) is surrounded by the fixing means. It is a thing.

As described above, when the tip of the needle member and the blood vessel position of the blood sampling target are matched by the control of the moving means by the control means, the control means further punctures the needle member into the blood vessel. The needle driving means for pulling out the needle is operated to puncture the blood vessel to be blood-collected with the needle member.

With the needle member being punctured into the blood vessel and the tip of the needle member being inside the blood vessel, the blood collecting operation mechanism in the blood collecting means is operated to adjust the internal pressure of the blood storage container to be lower than the blood pressure, so that blood is stored in the needle. It is introduced into the blood storage container through the inner hole of the member. When the operation of the blood collection operation mechanism is stopped after the blood collection is completed, the needle driving means is controlled by the control means to remove the needle member, and the blood collection operation is completed.

As described above, according to the present invention, the blood collecting operator simply installs the device on the body surface of the blood sampling subject or simply fixes the blood sampling site such as the arm or hand of the blood sampling subject to the device. A series of blood collection operations from recognizing the blood vessel position of the blood collection target to puncturing the needle member, drawing blood, and removing the needle can be performed almost automatically, and each operation is safe, regardless of the skill of the blood collecting operator. It can be done quickly and accurately.

An example of the blood collecting operation mechanism is a blood suction mechanism using a piston. of course,
In addition, any device that can adjust the internal pressure of the blood storage container, such as a depressurizing unit using a pump, can be used as the blood collection operation mechanism. When injecting), a large-scale device is not necessary and the piston mechanism is easy to design, so it is one of the most suitable mechanisms when incorporated in the device.

As the needle member and the blood storage container in the blood collecting means, existing injection needles and syringes can be used. At this time, the syringe part may be a detachable fitting type structure so as to interlock with the blood collection operation mechanism, for example, the piston mechanism as described above. Of course, a device for this apparatus may be manufactured instead of the existing one.

Further, as described in claim 2, when the blood collecting by the blood collecting operation mechanism after the blood vessel puncture of the needle member is controlled by the control means, the whole device can be further automated, and the further blood collecting time can be improved. It can be shortened. When the blood collection operation mechanism is controlled by the control means in this way, the blood collection amount can be controlled by the drive time of the blood collection operation mechanism based on the blood collection amount per unit time. Further, a means for limiting the drive amount of the blood collection operation mechanism in advance according to the blood collection amount may be provided. For example, the piston mechanism is provided with stopper means for stopping the movement of the piston when the amount of movement of the piston reaches a desired position.

According to the configuration of the present invention as described above, the level of the blood vessel to be collected can be set by appropriately setting at least the image pickup means (optical accuracy) and the needle member (thinness).
If you need a relatively large blood sample (larger blood vessels),
Alternatively, it can be appropriately set depending on the case where the number is small (fine blood vessels). Further, it becomes easy to make the blood collection target blood vessel finer and to bring it closer to painless blood collection, that is, the blood-feeding mechanism of mosquitoes.

[0020]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to examples. FIG. 1A is a schematic configuration diagram of a blood collecting device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the light source 7
An illumination optical system including the lens 8 and the half mirror 9, and an observation optical system including the objective lens 6 and the image pickup device 5 are built in the main body 3 as image pickup means.

The main body 3 is provided with a rotary shaft 4 for rotatably mounting the holder 2.
The blood sampling unit 1 as a blood sampling means is held therein. The blood collection unit 1 is provided with a blood suction mechanism 20 and a blood storage container 22 as a blood storage container that communicates with the blood suction mechanism 20 in a replaceable manner, and further has a puncture needle 21 attached to its tip. In this embodiment, the tip has an outer diameter of 0.2 m in order to reduce the pain associated with puncture.
It was decided to use fine needles of m or less.

In this embodiment, a blood suction mechanism 20 utilizing a piston is provided as a blood collection operation mechanism. This is a cylinder type, as shown in FIG.
The blood storage container 22 is attached by pressure contact to the tip of the tubular suction portion 23 of the cylindrical tip. The piston portion 26 in the cylinder is connected to the magnet member 27, and the coil 28
The coil 28 is pulled up or pulled down by the electromagnetic force generated by energizing the coil 28 with the magnet member 27 moving up or down along the axial direction. The movement of the piston portion 26 is performed by controlling the current of the control portion 10.

By pulling up the piston portion 26, the inside of the tubular suction portion 23 and the blood container 22
The inside becomes negative pressure, and the blood is sucked from the needle 21 to the blood container 22. In addition, the blood storage container 22 after the blood collection has a configuration in which the peripheral portion of the blood storage container 22 is pushed down and released by pushing down the outer cylinder 24 of the tubular suction portion 23. Normally, the outer cylinder 24 is held in a retracted state by a spring 25.

When the blood container 22 and the needle 21 are mounted, the holder 2 is mounted with the rotation shaft 4 being rotated upward, and the holder 2 is rotated downward after mounting. In addition, after the blood collection is completed, the holder 2 is rotated upward again,
The blood container 22 and the needle 21 are removed or replaced for the next blood collection.

Further, a frame-shaped position adjusting member 1 for surrounding the skin in the blood sampling region with a certain amount of tension so that the skin surface comes to the focal position of the objective lens 6.
2 is provided as a (relative) moving means. The in-frame region 13 of the position adjusting member 12 substantially coincides with the observed region by the observation optical system, and the position adjusting member 12 moves within the XY coordinate system set in the observed region by driving the positioning mechanism 11. I decided to do it.

Therefore, as the enclosed skin tissue is moved along with the movement of the position adjusting member 12, the blood vessel in the skin tissue also moves and the needle 10 of the blood collecting means 1 held by the holder 2 is moved. The blood vessel is aligned with the tip (at a fixed position in the XY coordinate system).

The control unit 10 has a positioning mechanism 11 for moving the position adjusting mechanism 12 based on information from the image pickup device 5.
And a blood suction mechanism 20 of the blood sampling unit 1 to control the blood sampling unit and to move the blood sampling unit when the needle a is punctured or withdrawn.
Is to control.

The operation of actually collecting blood with the above-mentioned structure will be described below. First, attach the holder 2 to the rotary shaft 4
A state in which the sterilized blood storage container 22 and the puncture needle 21 are attached to the blood sampling unit 1 in a state of being rotated upward with the position adjusting member 12 surrounding the skin (disinfected) of the blood sampling region 13 The blood sampling device is installed and fixed on the body surface of the blood sampling subject so that After fixing the device, the holder 2 is rotated downward so that the tip of the needle 21 is set at the origin position in the XY coordinate system of the observed region, and then the observation of the skin surface in the XY coordinate system is started.

In the illumination optical system, the illumination light emitted from the light source 7 passes through the lens 8 and the light reflected by the half mirror 0 passes through the objective lens 6 to illuminate the skin surface in the observed region. . The light reflected from the skin surface forms a skin surface image on the light receiving surface of the image sensor 5 via the objective lens 6. This skin surface image includes a blood vessel image in the skin surface layer.

The control unit 10 processes the input image captured by the image pickup device 5, that is, the distribution of the blood vessel portion and other regions as image information, and in the XY coordinate system, the origin position, that is, the tip portion of the needle 21. The blood vessel closest to the position is recognized as the blood collection target blood vessel, and the amount of deviation between the recognized blood vessel position and the origin position is calculated.

The control unit 10 outputs a signal corresponding to the obtained amount of deviation to the positioning adjustment mechanism 11, and the positioning adjustment mechanism 11 is driven by this signal. By driving the positioning adjustment mechanism 11, the position adjustment member 12 moves in a direction in which the above-mentioned shift amount disappears in the XY coordinate system, that is, in a direction from the blood vessel position of the blood sampling target to the origin position. In response to this movement, the skin tissue surrounded by the frame moves along with blood vessels.

In the blood collecting apparatus according to the present embodiment, the amount of movement of the position adjusting member 12 and the amount of movement of the skin tissue and blood vessel accompanying this are always the same, and the position adjusting member 12 is moved by the amount of deviation. Therefore, it can be said that it is possible to bring the blood collection target blood vessel to the origin position almost without fail. This is because, since the skin and the tissue of the skin surface layer itself have elasticity, when the frame member pressed against the skin surface is moved, it is surrounded by the frame within a certain range of this movement distance. The skin moves with the member by the same amount.

For blood collection in this embodiment, a fine needle is used, and a relatively fine blood vessel is targeted for blood collection. In this case, there are a large number of blood vessels that can be targeted in the skin surface layer portion, and a large number of fine blood vessels are present even in the small in-frame region of the position adjusting member 12. Therefore, there is a high possibility that there is a blood vessel near the origin position in the XY coordinate system, and if the blood vessel closest to the origin position is recognized as the blood collection target blood vessel, the amount of deviation is very small, and of course the skin movement as described above. The amount is within the range in which the amount of movement of the position adjusting member 12 is substantially the same.

Further, in the case of targeting a relatively thick blood vessel, it can be installed so that the blood vessel is located substantially at the center of the in-frame region of the position adjusting member 12 when the device is initially fixed. Therefore, if the in-frame area, which is the blood sampling area, and the observed area are substantially coincident with each other, the origin position of the XY coordinate system is very close to the center position of the in-frame area. The amount of movement is very small, and naturally the amount of movement of the skin as described above is within a range where it is substantially the same as the amount of movement of the position adjusting member 12.

As described above, in the blood collecting apparatus of this embodiment, the amount of deviation is small in any case, whether the blood collection target is a micro blood vessel or a relatively thick blood vessel, and the position adjusting member 12 is used. Positioning by skin movement is easily performed in a short time.

When the blood vessel to be sampled comes to the origin position of the XY coordinate system and coincides with the tip position of the needle 21, the control section 10 outputs a signal to the holder 2 to operate the drive mechanism of the holder 2 to collect the blood. By moving 1 in the longitudinal direction of the needle 21, the tip of the needle 21 is punctured into the blood vessel. Here, the drive mechanism of the holder 2 uses a solenoid. Blood sampling unit 1
With the core as a core, the blood collecting unit 1 holding unit of the holder 2 serves as a solenoid coil, and the blood collecting unit 1 moves along the axial direction of the coil, that is, the longitudinal direction of the needle 21 due to the magnetic attraction generated by passing a current through the coil. The control unit 10 controls the current so that the moving direction and the moving amount are appropriate.

When the needle 21 is punctured into the blood vessel to be blood-collected, the control unit 10 then controls the drive of the blood suction mechanism 20 of the blood collection unit 1 to raise the piston unit 26 and guide the inside of the tubular suction unit 23. And the inside of the blood container 22 is decompressed. Blood is sucked from the needle 21 punctured in the blood vessel according to the reduced pressure, and the blood is introduced into the blood container 22.

When the saline solution or heparin, which is an anticoagulant, is inhaled into the blood container 22 in advance, after the needle 21 is pierced, the control unit first descends the piston unit 26. After that, the inside of the tubular suction unit 23 and the blood storage container 22 are pressurized, and the solution in the blood storage container 22 is discharged, and then the piston portion 26 may be raised.

When the required blood collection amount is reached, the blood suction mechanism 2
The drive of 0 (rising of the piston portion 26) is stopped. The determination of stopping the blood collection can be controlled by setting the driving time based on the blood collection amount per unit time in the predetermined blood suction mechanism 20.

After stopping the driving of the blood suction mechanism 20, the control unit 10 immediately actuates the driving means of the holder 2 to move the blood sampling unit 1 to the opposite side of the skin along the longitudinal direction of the needle 20. To remove the needle 20 from the blood vessel and skin surface.

After removing the needle, the holder 2 is rotated upward about the rotary shaft 4 and the outer cylinder 24 of the tubular suction portion 23 is pushed down to remove the blood container 22 and the needle 21 from the blood collecting portion 1. The blood container 22 may be sent as it is to the examination / analysis process as a blood storage container. Next, when collecting blood from another blood sample recipient, a new sterilized blood container and a needle for puncture are replaced and attached to the blood collecting section 1, and the blood collecting operation as described above is repeated.

In the blood collecting device according to this embodiment as described above,
Since the entire device can be configured to be extremely compact, the device can be easily operated by hand and has high mobility. Also,
From the start of observation after installation to the blood sampling site to the puncture, it is extremely short compared to conventional visual inspection without being affected by the technical ability of the blood sampling operator, especially when using a fine needle. Since the pain is small, the burden on the blood sample is small. This is more effective for a blood sampler who needs to collect a relatively small amount of blood frequently.

Although a blood container for collecting a small amount of blood with a fine needle can be small, a blood container 22 and a puncture needle 21 that are integrally formed may be used for that purpose. .

Needless to say, this device can be used not only for collecting blood from a fine blood vessel using a fine needle, but also for collecting blood from a relatively thick blood vessel.
This is a case where a relatively large blood sampling amount is required, but the imaging means is set according to the recognizable blood vessel level,
The drive of the blood suction mechanism may be controlled according to the required blood collection amount. In addition, the size of the blood storage container and the size of the needle are appropriately selected.

When the amount of blood collected is the same as the conventional one, an existing syringe can be used as the blood container. At this time, the syringe may be attached to the blood collecting unit by attaching the piston of the syringe so as to interlock with the blood suction mechanism.

In the embodiment described above, the position of the distal end of the puncture needle 21 and the blood vessel to be collected is adjusted by moving the position adjusting member 12 by the control unit 10 via the positioning adjusting mechanism 11. Although the configuration is performed by moving the blood vessel side together with the skin tissue, the configuration may be performed by moving the needle 21 side. For example, a drive mechanism for moving the blood sampling unit 1 in the XY direction so that the tip of the needle 21 at the origin position in the XY coordinate system of the observed region moves in the holder 2 in the coordinate system. May be further provided.

When the needle 21 side is moved in this way to perform the alignment, it is not always necessary to provide a means for fixing the skin of the blood sampled portion like the position adjusting member 12, but a smooth needle for puncturing. It is desirable to have a fixing means that presses the skin in the blood sampling region with a certain amount of tension so as to surround the blood sampling region so that the above can be introduced.

Further, in the above embodiment, the electromagnetic force was used as the driving means for moving the blood sampling portion 1 of the holder 2 (puncture / needle removal), but the present invention is not limited to this, and the blood sampling portion is not limited to this. Any mechanism that can be controllably driven by the control unit 10 in the movement of 1 can be widely used. Although a blood suction mechanism using a piston is used as the blood collection operation mechanism, any mechanism capable of sucking blood with controllable blood collection time and blood collection amount can be used.

Further, as described above, the blood collecting apparatus according to the present invention can be installed and fixed on the blood collecting site when collecting blood because it can be easily carried by hand, but the apparatus side is fixed and the blood collecting is performed. The blood collection site such as the arm or hand of the person may be fixed according to the observed position of the device.

[0050]

As described above, according to the present invention, a blood sampling operator simply installs the device on the body surface of the blood sampling target or simply fixes the blood sampling site such as the arm or hand of the blood sampling target to the device.
The effect of being able to automatically recognize the blood vessel position of the blood collection target and perform the operation of puncturing and withdrawing the needle member, and each operation can be performed safely, quickly and accurately regardless of the skill of the blood collection operator There is.

Furthermore, if blood suction after puncture is also controlled by the control means, a series of blood collection operations can be automated, and blood collection can be performed more quickly and with less burden on the subject.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A and 1B show a blood collecting device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1A is a schematic configuration diagram of the device, and FIG. 1B is an enlarged sectional view of a blood collecting unit 1 in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Blood collection unit 2: Holder 3: Main body 4: Rotation axis 5: Image sensor 6: Objective lens 7: Light source 8: Lens 9: Half mirror 10: Control unit 11: Positioning mechanism 12: Position adjustment member 13: Blood collection area 20: Blood suction mechanism 21: Needle 22: Blood storage container 23: Tubular suction part 24: Outer cylinder 25: Spring 26: Piston part 27: Magnet member 28: Coil

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An imaging unit having an illumination optical system for irradiating a predetermined region of a body surface of a blood sampler and an observation optical system for observing a blood vessel in the region through the body surface, and puncturing the blood vessel. Blood collection means having a replaceable needle member and a blood storage container for collecting blood by means of a blood collection operation mechanism for collecting blood into the blood storage container through the inner hole of the needle member; A moving means for moving relative to
A needle driving unit that causes the needle member to perform a puncturing / pulling motion with respect to a blood vessel, and based on information from the imaging unit, controls the moving unit so that the tip of the needle member and the blood vessel position match, And a control means for actuating the needle driving means at the matching position. 2. The blood collection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls blood collection by the blood collection operation mechanism after the blood vessel puncture of the needle member.