JPS62237342A - Automatic analyzing instrument for cell - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit the quick and fully automatic execution of a reinspection operation of an important specimen by providing a specimen storage device, conveyor and microscope, etc. CONSTITUTION:The specimen storage device 2 is positioned and stopped in such a manner that slide specimens 4 can be conveyed to meet the inspection time width of the respective specimens. The specimens 4 placed on the conveyor 4 are transferred to an X-Y stage 6 of the microscope 5. The cells on the specimen 4 mounted to the stage 6 are moved into the visual field of the microscope 5 by the control of a controller 7 and is fed as an electrical image signal by a camera 8 to a high-speed image processor 9. The characteristic information of the cells is, thereupon, extracted and is classified according to the cell identification theory of a program 14 by a CPU10. The result of the classification and the position on the cell specimens are subjected to data memory 11. The analysis of the first specimen is completed after the above- mentioned operation is repeated until the assigned number of cells is attained. The sample is selected to the group requiring the reinspection and the data of said sample is stored 11 when the results of the analysis correspond to the case when the specific conditions preliminarily inputted 30 to the program 14 are generated by such analysis operation.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an automatic cell analyzer, and particularly to an automatic cell analyzer for observing a slide specimen smeared with a sample containing cells with a microscope equipped with a television camera and then reexamining it. The present invention relates to a suitable automatic cell analyzer.

[Conventional technology]

BACKGROUND ART In hospitals, testing centers, biological research institutes, and the like, specimens of blood cells or tissue cells are prepared by depositing blood or living tissue on glass slides, and the specimens are tested or researched. In recent years, this type of testing work has increasingly been performed using automatic cell analyzers instead of manual methods.

゛As an automatic cell analyzer, the
As shown in , the position on the slide specimen and the storage address of the specimen are memorized for a particular cell during automatic inspection of each slide specimen, and after all specimen analysis operations are completed. An apparatus is known that allows specimens containing unknown cells to be sequentially pulled out under a microscope and reexamined through visual observation by an operator.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

The conventional apparatus described above is configured so that all slide specimens in which unknown cells appear are taken out again under the microscope and reexamined.

However, as a result of automated cell analysis, more than 80% of slide specimens contain unknown cells.
With conventional equipment, almost every slide specimen had to be pulled out under the microscope for reexamination. Since the re-examination is carried out visually by a technician, there is a problem in that the efficiency of the inspection work is very low, and in particular important specimens that require re-examination cannot be re-examined quickly.

The purpose of the present invention is to enable reexamination by visual inspection of only particularly important specimens, thereby speeding up reexamination work, and also to speed up reexamination work for ordinary specimens with unknown cells. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic cell analyzer that can perform reconfirmation work.

[Means for solving problems]

In the present invention, a slide (
) 11 cells using a television camera, a classification storage device that classifies the cell images from the television camera and stores the classification results for each slide specimen, and a plurality of slide specimens each stored in a predetermined storage position. a slide specimen storage device that positions a designated slide specimen stored in the storage device and placed in a position where it can be transported when a withdrawal command is issued; a slide specimen transport device that returns the slide specimen from the microscope to the specimen storage device; a recording device that records images of cells detected by the television camera; and a screen display of the images of cells recorded in the recording device. A display device for displaying the slide sample to be analyzed, and specific conditions such as the number of unknown cells appearing in the slide specimen to be analyzed is greater than a predetermined number, certain normal cells, cells outside the normal value range, and abnormal cells are present. and a condition input device that can specify at least one specific condition.

In the present invention, the inspection numbers of all analyzed slide specimens and the positions of all analyzed cells on the corresponding slide specimens are stored in the classification storage device, and among the analyzed slide specimens, re-examination is performed. At times, slide specimens that meet the specific conditions are sequentially supplied from the specimen storage device to the microscope, and cells that meet the specific conditions are positioned in the field of view of the microscope so that they can be visually observed. For slide specimens that do not meet the conditions but have unknown cells, the system is configured to record the unknown cells on the recording device.

[Effect]

In the case of a slide specimen based on a normal normal specimen, the number of unknown cells is 3% or less (1 for each specimen).
00 cells, the number is 3 or less), and it is said that most of these unknown cells can be classified as normal cells by monitoring the cell images with a video recorder (VTR) without having to pull out the slide specimen again under the microscope. It is based on knowledge.

Particularly important specimens that affect the diagnosis of a patient's pathological condition account for less than 10% of all specimens, so the system was designed to allow technicians to visually inspect these specimens collectively.

The automatic cell analyzer of the present invention identifies and sorts the analysis results based on specific conditions, including the inspection sequence number of the slide specimen, the position on the slide specimen of all the cells that were automatically analyzed, and the specimen number that was selected during automatic analysis. is stored in the storage device.

Therefore, for specimens that need to be re-examined after automatic analysis,
It becomes possible to visually observe any type of cells using a microscope when performing a reexamination, and even if the type of cells is changed during a reexamination, the cells can be quickly observed without performing automatic analysis again. In addition, the slide storage device can randomly draw out slide specimens at any storage address by a control command, and the slide specimen number and its storage address are stored in correspondence, so reexamination of slide specimens under specific conditions is not necessary. There will be no malfunction.

〔Example〕

An embodiment based on the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

In FIG. 1, a microscope 5 includes a television camera 8 that sends an image of cells on a slide specimen positioned in the field of view of the microscope to an image processing device 9 and a color CRT display 13.
It is also equipped with a window 21 that allows laboratory technicians to visually observe the specimen. The classification storage device 25 is connected to a classification computer (CP) that also controls the entire system.
U) 10, an image processing device 9 that processes signals obtained by photoelectrically converting the microscope image at high speed, and a height control device that controls the operation of the microscope stage 6 to position the slide specimen under the microscope and accurately position the test cells in the field of view of the microscope. It is equipped with a precision controller 7, a storage device 11 consisting of a floppy disk, etc., and a program storage device 14, and converts each cell image from a television camera 8 into one of the N1 types according to a predetermined algorithm. The classification results are stored for each slide specimen.

The slide specimen storage device 2 has twelve specimen cassettes 1, and these cassettes can be rotated and stopped at predetermined positions. Each cassette 1 can accommodate 25 slide specimens 4 in the vertical direction.

The specimen storage location for each cassette is stored in computer 1°. That is, since each slide specimen is stored in a predetermined storage position, when a pull-out command is issued, the designated slide specimen is positioned at a transportable position.

The slide specimen transport device 3 supplies the slide specimen 4 from the specimen storage device 2 to the microscope 5.

The specimen that has been examined is returned from the microscope 5 to the corresponding cassette 1 in the specimen storage device 2.

Recording device c! ! 15 can record images of cells observed with the television camera 8, and this recorded image is
It can be displayed on the CRT 13 if necessary.

1 The condition input device 30 is connected to the computer 0 and usually consists of a keyboard operation point. This condition input device 30 specifies that the slide specimen to be analyzed has a predetermined number or more of unknown cells (for example, 7 or more for each specimen), and that certain normal cells (for example, basophils) have a normal value. Significantly out of range (for example, 5 or more out of range)
It is possible to specify specific conditions such as the presence of abnormal cells related to the disease state on the specimen. The example described here corresponds to the case where 100 cells are analyzed for each specimen.

Next, the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be explained with reference to FIG. 2.

First, a specific condition, such as the presence of abnormal cells, is specified (step 100).The turntable-type specimen storage device 2 uses a vertical movement motor (not shown) and a rotation angle motor (not shown) to inspect each specimen. The slide specimen is positioned and stopped so that it can be transported according to the time width. Positioned specimen 4
is placed on the transport device; 3 and transported, and the
Moved to Y stage 6. The cells on the slide specimen mounted on the X-Y stage 6 are moved into the field of view of the microscope under the control of the controller 7, and after the focus is adjusted by an automatic focusing mechanism (not shown), the cells are captured as electrical image signals by the camera 8. The information is sent to the high-speed image processing device 9, where characteristic information of the cells is extracted, and classified by the CPU 10 according to the cell identification logic of the program 14 (step 101). The classification results and the positions of the cells on the specimen are stored in the data storage device 11 (step 102). After the above operations are repeated until the specified number of cells is reached (step 103), the analysis of the first sample is completed. In this analysis operation, specific conditions 1 that have been entered in advance into the program 14 from the keyboard 30, for example, if clearly abnormal cells appear in the analyzed specimen, and if the number of unknown cells exceeds a certain number (for example, 7
or above) and when specific cells among normal cells, such as basophils, deviate greatly from the normal value range (for example, a value of 5 or more).

etc., when the analysis results are applicable, the specimen is sorted into a group requiring reexamination (Step 104), and its specimen number is stored in the data storage device 11'' (Step 1).
05).

If the specific conditions are not met (step 106), only the unknown cells are designated from the analysis results of the specimen, automatically called under the microscope, and recorded along with the specimen number on an image recording device such as a VTR 15. Step 1o7).

When the above operations are completed, the specimen that has been inspected is exchanged with the next specimen by the autoloader carrier mechanism 3, and the first specimen is moved to the same address of the original specimen cassette on the multi-cassette turntable 2 by the autoloader carrier mechanism 3. It will be sent back and stored. The same operation as described above is sequentially repeated for the samples stored in all the sample cassettes on the turntable, and when the automatic analysis is completed (step 108), the apparatus automatically stops.

Next, the process moves on to a re-examination operation by the technician. The procedure is step 3.
There are two types: re-examination of the figure (1) and re-examination of Figure 4 (2).

Retest (1) is a retest operation for important specimens that meet specific conditions as a result of automatic analysis.

First, from the keyboard 30, the reexamination mode is designated (step 110) L, the cells to be reexamined (abnormal cells, unknown cells, other specific normal cells, etc.) are designated, and the operation is started.

The number of the specimen that meets the specific conditions is called from the data storage device 11, and the specimen in the specimen cassette 1 at the specified address on the multi-cassette turntable 2 is pulled out by the controller 1 roller 7 and transferred under the microscope (step 11). , a designated cell is called into the microscope field according to position data on the specimen stored in a data storage device (step 112). The technician identifies the called cells by visual observation (step 113), inputs the determined cell name from the keyboard (step 114), and corrects the automatic analysis results.

After repeating this procedure and retesting the cells of the first specific specimen (step 115), the next specific specimen is quickly retrieved from its designated address and retested in the same manner (step 116). You can also change specific conditions (Step 1)
17). On the other hand, the specimen that has been reexamined is stored in the same location of the original specimen cassette under the same control as during Moe's automatic analysis operation. With the Fukiage method, the re-inspection (1) can be carried out quickly, and only important specimens can be re-inspected intensively.
Correct analysis results are sent to the printer 12 or external CPU and printed out on report paper.

Next, the procedure for re-examination (2) will be explained.

In the case of re-examination (2), the specimen is a normal specimen that hardly requires re-examination, but as there is a possibility that some of the unknown cells may contain important cells, it is necessary to confirm the situation. .

In this reexamination, only the unknown cells of each specimen recorded on a VTR or the like are reproduced on a reproduction monitor (step 120), and visually inspected (step 121). If some of the regenerated cells are difficult to distinguish (step 122) and are difficult to distinguish from the regenerated image, enter the specimen number manually from the keyboard 30 (step 123), and then enter the specimen number from the specimen cassette. can be pulled out under a microscope and visually observed (steps 124, 125).

1-;l! l+ operation is repeated (step 126)
.

In the re-inspection (2) mode as shown in (L-), the importance of re-inspection is low, so the inspection can be carried out whenever necessary, and in actual routine inspections it is easy and takes only a short time. The feature is that it can be done in a concentrated manner.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to fully automatically reexamine important specimens in a short time, which conventionally required a long time, and furthermore, it is possible to specify any type of cell at any time after automatic analysis. This makes it possible to greatly improve inspection efficiency, save labor, and improve inspection reliability.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a basic classification operation according to the embodiment of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 shows a reexamination operation for cells that meet specific conditions. Flowchart FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the reexamination operation of recorded cells. 1... Specimen cassette, 2... Specimen storage device, 3...
・Transport device, 5...Microscope, 8...TV camera,
9... Image processing device, 10... Computer, 11
...Data storage device, J-3--Color CRT, 1
5.VTR. 21...Visual observation window, 25...Classification storage device, 30
... Condition human powered device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A microscope for observing cells on a slide specimen positioned in the field of view of the microscope with a television camera, a classification storage device for classifying cell images from the television camera and storing classification results for each slide specimen, and a plurality of slide specimens. a slide specimen storage device which stores the slide specimens at predetermined storage positions and positions the designated slide specimen at a transportable position when a pull-out command is received; and a slide specimen storage device that supplies the slide specimen from the specimen storage device to the microscope. a slide specimen transport device that returns the slide specimen after the examination from the microscope to the specimen storage device; a recording device that records images of cells observed by the television camera; and cells recorded in the recording device. A display device that displays an image on a screen, and a slide specimen to be analyzed that shows that the number of unknown cells is greater than a predetermined number, that certain normal cells are outside the normal value range, and that abnormal cells are present. It is equipped with a condition input device that can specify at least one specific condition among the specific conditions, and the test number of all analyzed slide specimens and the position of all analyzed cells on the corresponding slide specimen. are stored in the classification storage device, and among the analyzed slide specimens, the slide specimens that meet the above specific conditions are sequentially supplied from the specimen storage device to the microscope at the time of reexamination, and the cells that meet the above specific conditions are An automatic cell analysis device positioned in a field of view of a microscope to enable visual observation, and configured to record unknown cells on the recording device for slide specimens to be analyzed that do not meet the specific conditions but have unknown cells.