JPS58179339A - Analyzing apparatus of particle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively analyze up to the maximum limit the information concerning minute particles such as a blood corpuscle suspending in a liquid, by sampling so that the number of signals for the analyzing object is made to come within a prescribed range at every measurement and making an operation interval even such as nearly constant. CONSTITUTION:A liquid particles are suspended is passed through a fine pore and the particles are detected basing on the differences of electrical or optical properties between the particles and the liquid and then, an electric signal having the intensity depending on the size of the particles is generated in a particle detecting apparatus 1. The number of signals per unit time is counted 5 at the dead time before beginning of measurement and a sampling interval is selected 7 basing on this counted value. Then, the sampled signal is converted and a histogram is prepared. An AD conversion circuit converting the information of height of an analogue pulse into a digital signal is used for said conversion circuit. This digital signal acts so as to add one to a place of an address of a memory 13 giving its particle size. Such action is performed for a prescribed particle suspension regulated by an apparatus 2 of quantitative determination and in the case where the sampling is carried out for 1/4 of the whole, the original absolute value is obtained by the histogram displayed and printed on a display device 12 or a recording device 11 by quadrupling its number. Accordingly, it is affectively utilized without saturation when nearly a fixed dimension is given to the capacity of the memory.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an apparatus for analyzing microparticles such as blood cells suspended in a liquid. It is related to the device.

Conventional - To analyze particles such as blood cells suspended in liquid 1
Pass the particles through a narrow channel and detect the particles based on electrical or optical differences between the two particles and the liquid11. This is done by further analyzing the detection signal obtained during detection. In general, this analysis creates a histogram by classifying the information of each particle into predetermined information groups, and extracts the characteristics of these particle groups, so it is divided into one classification. It is necessary to store the frequency of information using memory. On the other hand, a histogram of the relative proportion to the total number of particles is also required, but a histogram of the number distribution to the absolute volume of liquid in which each particle is suspended is also required. In particle size analysis of blood cells, which is used in the field of clinical blood, it is necessary to know the absolute number of particles of the same particle size, such as one red blood cell, one white blood cell, and one platelet, that is, information on the distribution of the number.

For measurement items such as red blood cells, which have relatively few individual differences, memory capacity for storing information is used relatively effectively, but for white blood cells, which can vary by more than two orders of magnitude depending on the case, requires a relatively large amount of memory in anticipation of the maximum number of leukocytes, and when analyzing white blood cells in a normal normal person, a large portion of the memory remains unused, resulting in waste. . Furthermore, in the industrial field limited to the field of clinical blood testing, similar problems and difficulties are occurring, and the current situation is that the built-in memory is not being used effectively. If the memory becomes too dark, dilute the sample again.

This required time and effort such as having to take measurements again. Furthermore, if a large capacity memory is used, the contents of the memory must be read once when creating a histogram, and the calculation time required is proportional to the capacity, which increases the time required for one analysis. There was a drawback.

The present invention was made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and the present invention detects particles based on the electrical or optical difference between the particles and the liquid by passing a liquid in which a single particle is suspended through the 'f7 & pores. A particle detection device that generates an electrical signal with a height corresponding to the size of By configuring it to include a selection circuit for selecting a sampling interval based on the sampled signal and a circuit for converting the sampled signal and creating a histogram, the memory capacity can be reduced to a minimum and the particle size can be effectively utilized. The purpose is to provide analytical equipment.

Furthermore, the present invention can effectively work on samples for which a smooth histogram could not be obtained due to the small number of particles per unit volume. 1-1 Particle analysis that can obtain effective analysis results. The aim is to provide the equipment.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the present invention will be explained based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example in which the present invention is applied to particle size distribution measurement, and FIG. 2 shows signal waveforms at various parts. 1 is a particle detection device that passes a liquid in which a single particle is suspended through a micropore, detects the particle based on the electrical or optical difference between the particle and the liquid, and detects the particle at a height corresponding to the size of the particle. A device that generates electrical signals. 2 is a device for quantifying suspended particles passing through the particle detection device 1, 3 is a threshold circuit, 4 is a frequency division control signal generation circuit, 5 is a counting circuit, 6 is a control circuit, 7 is a selection circuit, and 8 is a switch. - Sochi circuit-9 is a conversion circuit-10 is an arithmetic circuit, 11 is a display device, 12 is a recording device-16 is a memo IJ-.

The output pulse A of the particle detection device 1 is converted into a rectangular pulse B by the threshold circuit B and sent to the one-frequency control signal generation circuit 4 and the counting circuit 5. The control circuit 6 is driven by a signal from the arithmetic circuit 10 and sends a control signal C to the counting circuit 5 so that the counting circuit 5 performs counting for a predetermined period of time. On the other hand 1
Based on the signal B, the frequency division control signal generation circuit 4 generates the signal D1 from the rising edge to the falling edge of the signal B, every other signal of this signal, every other signal of this signal D2, and so on.・
・Send the parallel signal group to the selection circuit 7.

The count value for a predetermined time regulated by the signal C is determined by the counting circuit 5, and depending on the magnitude of this count value, the optimum signal is selected from the group of parallel signals input to the selection circuit 7, and one switch circuit 8 Send switch signal E to .

A particle detector output signal A is sent to the switch circuit 8, and a signal F is obtained in order to pass the signal A at the signal interval selected by the switch signal E.

This signal F is subjected to AD conversion in a conversion circuit 9 in order to obtain the height of one signal F in the wooden embodiment.
Send a conversion signal to 0. On the other hand, this signal F is transmitted from the counting circuit 5 to the arithmetic circuit 10 in order to know at what pulse intervals the original signal is switched in the selection circuit 7, so that the conversion output of the conversion circuit 9 is pulsed. You can see what percentage of the information corresponds to the total. Furthermore, the quantitative device 2 sends measurement start and measurement end signals to the arithmetic circuit 10, and absolute measurement is performed as the number of particles in a predetermined sample solution.

In the apparatus configured and operated as described above, the initial setting count measurement based on one signal C is performed using the dead time from when the fixed amount device 2 is reset to when the measurement start signal is issued. That is, - in highly concentrated samples with very short pulse intervals, an initial selection is made to sample the pulses at a predetermined pulse interval - and a switch signal is generated. This switch signal causes signals sent to a conversion circuit (for example, an AD conversion circuit) to always be at predetermined intervals in any measurement.

In an apparatus for obtaining a particle size distribution as one of the embodiments, an AD conversion circuit that converts analog pulse height information into a digital signal is used as the conversion circuit.

This digital signal operates to add one to the memory 16 at the address indicating the granularity. The above operations are performed on a predetermined particle suspended liquid regulated by the quantitative device 2, and when sampling is performed for 1/4 of the total, the display is printed on the display device 11 and the recording device 12. The original absolute value of the histogram can be obtained by multiplying the number by four. Therefore, if the memory capacity is approximately constant, it can be used effectively without reaching saturation. Furthermore, in the embodiment, a device for obtaining a histogram of one particle size is explained (1), but in other embodiments, the particle detection device is a color analysis device that emits an optical detection signal, and particle classification analysis using one color, etc. It can also be applied to

That is, the signal counted by the counting circuit 5 is a black and white signal,
The switch circuit 8 is set to three systems of red, green, and blue, and the signals of the three systems are sampled, the conversion circuit 9 and the arithmetic circuit 10 perform classification, and the number of particles after classification is stored in the memory 16. By correcting the sampling rate, it is possible to obtain the absolute value of the number of force particles in each stock solution.

As explained above, in the particle analyzer of the present invention, the number of signals for one analysis target is sampled within a predetermined range each time the measurement is performed, so the calculation interval is averaged almost constant, and the speed is low. It is possible to sufficiently follow up even with an arithmetic circuit of 1, and the memory capacity can still be kept to the minimum necessary - and it can be used more effectively. 1- Therefore, the device of the present invention is a device for measuring the particle size distribution curve of white blood cells and platelets whose numbers fluctuate relatively widely in blood, or (in the industrial field, measuring particle size distribution histograms of particles whose number is not constant, etc.) It is also suitable for use as an optical particle classification and measurement device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a systematic explanatory diagram showing one embodiment of the particle analyzer of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of signal waveforms of each part. 1. Particle detection device, 2. Quantification device, 6. Threshold circuit. 4... Frequency division control signal generation circuit-5... Counting circuit, 6...
-Control circuit-7...Selection circuit-'8...Sui-Sochi circuit, 9...Conversion circuit, 10...-Arithmetic circuit-11...Display device. 1291, Recording device-13...Memory patent applicant
Toa Medical Electronics Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A particle detection device that passes a liquid in which particles are suspended through micropores, detects particles based on electrical or optical differences between the particles and the liquid, and generates an electrical signal with a height corresponding to the size of the particles. , a counting circuit that measures the number of detected measurement signals per unit time during the dead time before the start of measurement, a selection circuit that selects between sampling based on the count value of the counting circuit, and a selection circuit that converts the sampled signal. [2] A particle analysis device comprising: a circuit for creating a hinutogram;