JPS61247962A - Cell diagnosing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make possible the diagnosis with high accuracy by diagnosing first roughly the cancer with the morphological characteristic from the image of the cells displayed on a television monitor and estimating the DNA and protein quantity in the nuclei from the transmittance thereof. CONSTITUTION:A specific wavelength of the light from a light source 1 for illumination is selected by an interference filter 2. An image disector 5 is an image pickup tube which multiplies and takes out the electrons transmitted through a micro-aperture and scans the optional part of the electron image on the photoelectric surface so as to correspond to the aperture. The output from the image disector 5 is stored into the frame memory of an arithmetic unit 7 and is displayed on the television monitor 8. The operator inputs the specific part of the cell image displayed on the monitor 8 to the arithmetic unit 7 by an operation console 9 so that the luminance in said part (the transmittance of the selected light in the specific part of the cells) is calculated by said unit. The result thereof is displayed on part of the monitor 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a cell diagnostic device that measures the shape of cells and the transmittance of cells to specific wavelength components to obtain information for diagnosing cells.

(Prior art) For example, in conventional cell diagnosis to search for the presence or absence of cancer cells, morphological characteristics are used as parameters for cell diagnosis, such as the area of the nucleus in the cell, the irregularity of its shape, and the proportion of the nucleus in the whole cell. Morphological elements such as the proportion of are used.

However, when using morphological features as parameters, even normal cells may have enlarged nuclei or have irregularly shaped nuclei, making diagnosis difficult.

Furthermore, it has been practically impossible to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors.

On the other hand, as a research-level proposal, there is a proposal to apply microphotometric technology to cell diagnosis.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional microphotometric method.

The light emitted from the light source 1 is reflected by the mirror 12 and then condensed by the condenser lens 14, and is focused on the sample 1 on the sample stage 15.
After passing through the lens 6, it is magnified by the objective lens 17.

In microphotometry, in order to measure the light transmittance of a specific part of a sample, an aperture 18 is placed in the optical path so that only the light passes through that specific part, and the amount of light that has finally passed is measured with a photomultiplier tube 19. .

This microphotometric method has the following problems.

(1) Since a circular aperture is normally used as the aperture 18, its size is variable only at the center of the aperture 18.

Therefore, place the sample 16 so that the part you want to measure is in the center.
must be moved.

(2) Circular apertures cannot create amorphous shapes such as the nucleus of a cell, and light from areas other than the target area enters, reducing measurement accuracy.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) Since the cell diagnostic devices that have been used so far have utilized morphological characteristics as mentioned above, their diagnostic accuracy has not been very good, and they have not been able to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors. was not possible.

Devices that attempt to supplementally measure the transmittance of a specific wavelength are also incomplete as described above.

An object of the present invention is to provide a cell diagnostic device that can measure the shape of a cell and the transmittance of a specific part of the cell to a wavelength component.

(Means for solving the problem) In order to achieve the above object, a cell diagnostic device according to the present invention includes a light source, a device for selecting a specific light included in the light source, and a cell diagnostic device illuminated with the specific light. an optical system that magnifies a sample image; an image dissector that captures the image magnified by the optical system; a television monitor that displays the content captured by the image dissector; and a television monitor that records the output of the image dissector. It is comprised of an image memory, means for specifying a specific portion of the image displayed on the television monitor, and an arithmetic device for calculating the brightness of the specified portion.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings and the like.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a cell diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention.

A specific wavelength of light from an illumination light source 1 is selected by an interference filter 2.

The selected light is reflected by a mirror 12, condensed by a condenser lens 14, passed through a sample 16 on a sample stage 15, and then magnified by an objective lens 17.

This microscope optical system does not use an aperture for extracting a specific part of the image as described above, and the enlarged cell image is projected onto the photocathode of the image dissector 5.

As is well known, the image dissector 5 is an image pickup tube that multiplies and extracts electrons that have passed through a minute aperture formed inside, and transfers any part of the electron image on the photocathode to the aperture. Scanning is being performed to match.

Scanning of the image dissector 5 is performed by a control device 6 for the image dissector and interference filter drive device.

The image extraction area of the image dissector 5 is adjustable.

The output of the image dissector 5 is stored in the frame memory of the arithmetic unit 7 and displayed on the television monitor 8.

By inputting a specific part of the cell image displayed on the television monitor 8 through the operation console 9, the brightness of that part (transmittance of the specific part of the cell to the selected light) is calculated by the calculation device 7. The result can be displayed on a part of the television monitor 8.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, a plurality of types of interference filters 2 are prepared so that light in different wavelength ranges can be selected depending on the purpose.

When an input to select a specific interference filter is made from the operation console 9, the interference filter drive device 3 is activated by a signal from the image dissector and interference filter drive device control device 6, and the interference filter drive device 3 is designated. The interference filter is inserted into the optical path of the illumination system.

This causes the sample 16 to be illuminated with light of different wavelengths.

Next, a case in which DNA is diagnosed using the apparatus of the embodiment will be explained as an example.

Feugelman staining is used for DNA diagnosis.

In this case, the portion containing DNA is dyed with a color having an absorption peak at 546 nm.

Therefore, in the case of DNA, a 546 nm interference filter 2
use.

The light made monochromatic at the wavelength by the interference filter 2 passes through the sample 16 on the slide glass 15, is magnified by the objective lens 17 of the microscope, and focuses its image on the image dissector 5.

The image dissector 5 is controlled by a control device for the image dissector 5, and stores the obtained sample image in a frame memory in the arithmetic unit 7.

The sample image stored in the frame memory is displayed on the television monitor 8.

While viewing the television monitor 8, when a part of the sample image (for example, a nucleus) for which the light quantity is to be determined is inputted on the console 9, a numerical value corresponding to the light quantity of that part is displayed on the television monitor 8.

The portion to be quantified can also be input by tracing the image on the television monitor 8 with a light ben or the like. The target sample is determined based on the displayed numerical value and the morphology of cells, nuclei, etc. displayed on the television monitor 8.

In addition, if you want to accurately measure the light transmittance, you can take an image of only the slide glass 15 without the sample for correction and take the ratio of this image to the image of the sample. It is also possible to take an image of the transmittance of light.

The above has only described measurement using one wavelength. However, by controlling the insertion and removal of two or more interference filters 2 using the interference filter drive device 3, it is possible to automatically measure two or more multi-stained samples (DNA staining and protein staining). A more accurate diagnosis is possible using a combination of

(Effects of the Invention) As explained in detail above, the cell diagnostic device according to the present invention first stores an image of a target sample in a frame memory using an image dissector, then cuts out only a specific region from the frame memory, and Since the amount of light is measured using the signal in the Z-axis direction of the part, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) Highly accurate diagnosis is possible by first making a rough diagnosis of cancer based on morphological characteristics from the cell image displayed on the television monitor, and then estimating the amount of DNA and protein in the nucleus from its transmittance. be. Furthermore, it becomes possible to determine whether a tumor is benign or malignant based on the amount of DNA and protein.

(2) No matter how complex the shape, the light transmittance of that part can be measured accurately.

(3) Since the principle is different from microphotometry, the sample does not need to be located in the center of the field of view, and it is possible to judge a large number of samples on one screen.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a cell diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional microphotometric method. 1...Light source 2...Interference filter 3...
Interference filter drive device 4...Microscope 5...Image dissector 6
... Control device for image dissector and interference filter driving device 7 ... Arithmetic device 8 ... Television monitor 9
...Input device 12...Mirror 13...Aperture 14...
・Condenser lens 15...Sample stage 16...Sample 17...Objective lens 18...Aperture 19...Photomultiplier tube (PMT) Patent applicant Hamamatsu Photonics Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Inoro Jusai Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 1-L

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A light source that generates light in a specific wavelength range, an optical system that magnifies the sample image illuminated with the specific light, an image dissector that captures the image magnified by the optical system, and the image a television monitor for displaying the imaged content of the image dissector; an image memory for recording the output of the image dissector; means for specifying a specific portion of the image displayed on the television monitor; A cell diagnostic device consisting of a calculation device that calculates the brightness of the area. (2) Cell diagnosis according to claim 1, wherein the light source that generates the specific light is comprised of a light source that includes other types of wavelength components and an interference filter that selects a specific wavelength from the light source. Device. (3) The cell diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the optical system for enlarging the sample image is an objective optical system of a microscope.