JPH05119040A - Sample measuring apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve an overall processing speed eliminating a probe washing process while measuring a sample with a better accuracy by arranging an exclusive probe for each reagent in a sample measuring apparatus while being allowed to be mounted on or removed from a reagent injection means, which enables the use of the exclusive probe for each reagent to prevent pollution between samples. CONSTITUTION:A reaction container finished with measurement is discharged at the position of a reaction container discharge means 17 to be housed into a reaction container housing section 21. A new reaction container is loaded at a empty position on a reaction table 11. When a reagent different from the reagent sucked previously is injected, a probe of a reagent injection means 14 is changed. A exclusive probe 51 is set at a probe station 50.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sample measuring apparatus for performing clinical biochemical automatic analysis, and particularly, to automatically measure blood coagulation ability such as blood coagulation screening test and identification or quantification of abnormality of coagulation factor. The present invention relates to a sample measuring device for.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art First, the principle of conventional blood coagulation measurement will be described. The blood coagulation test items of the blood sample, which is a sample sample, are PT item (prothrombin time), AP
TT item (activated partial thromboplastin time), Fi
5 items such as b item (fibrinogen), T item (thrombotest), H item (hepaplastin test)
It is an item and is measured simultaneously or in any combination for each blood sample.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an optical detection system for measuring the coagulation ability of a blood sample as a change in scattered light intensity. In this method, a blood sample such as plasma is placed in a transparent reaction container, and then a dedicated reagent corresponding to each test item is injected to optically detect turbidity change when fibrinogen is converted to fibrin, for example. To do. Light emitted from a light source such as a light emitting diode enters the reaction vessel, scattered light generated by blood coagulation is converted into an electric signal by a light receiving element such as a photodiode, and scattered by a display device such as a display meter through an amplifier. Display changes in light intensity. Figure 6
Shows the relationship between the state of blood coagulation reaction and the scattered light intensity signal. Generally, the scattered light intensity does not change much immediately after the injection of the reagent (STEP 1), but gradually increases after a predetermined time (STEPs 2 to 3) and reaches a certain signal level before the coagulation reaction ends (STEP 4). As the coagulation reaction progresses, the turbidity of the blood sample changes, and the intensity of scattered light changes over time.Therefore, the time from the start of the coagulation reaction to reaching the predetermined scattered light level is defined as the "coagulation time". Then, the detection signal is digitized. FIG. 7 shows an example of the definition of “coagulation time”, where the scattered light intensity before reagent injection is 0% and the scattered light intensity after the coagulation reaction is 1
The intensity of scattered light is 5% from the start of reagent injection.
The time until reaching 0% is defined as "clotting time".

Conventionally, there have been proposed some sample measuring devices which automatically perform a coagulation test on a large number of blood samples by utilizing such a principle of blood coagulation measurement.

FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram of an example of a conventional sample measuring device. Reaction vessels such as cuvettes are arranged in a line in order and conveyed on a conveying means such as a belt conveyor. When the reaction container reaches a predetermined position, a predetermined amount of blood sample is injected by the sample injection means, and when it is further transported and reaches another predetermined position, a predetermined amount of reagent is injected by the reagent injection means and the blood coagulation reaction starts. To do. Immediately after injecting the reagent, the reaction container is conveyed to a position where an optical measuring unit for measuring the coagulation ability of the blood sample is provided and stopped until the measurement is completed. The scattered light intensity signal corresponding to the change in turbidity of the blood sample is sampled at constant time intervals, converted into a digital value by the A / D converter, and stored in a memory or the like. on the other hand,
When an arithmetic unit such as a CPU performs signal analysis and determines that the scattered light intensity signal has reached a predetermined saturation level, it calculates and outputs the above-mentioned "coagulation time", and the reaction container in which the coagulation reaction has ended is It is discarded in the storage container. When the measurement for one reaction container is completed, a new reaction container is then transported in the order of sample injection, reagent injection, and optical measurement.
By repeating such a procedure, a large amount of blood sample is automatically measured.

FIG. 9 is a schematic configuration diagram of another example of the conventional sample measuring apparatus. In this device, a plurality of reagents corresponding to a plurality of inspection items are prepared.
.. indicate sample numbers, and letters A, B, C indicate inspection items. For example, the sample of sample number 1 and the reagent corresponding to the inspection item B are injected into the reaction container 1B, and the reaction container 3
It means that the sample of sample number 3 and the reagent corresponding to the inspection item C are injected into C.

The reaction container such as a cuvette is shown in FIG.
Similar to the sample measuring device, the samples are arranged in a line in order on a conveyor such as a belt conveyer, sample injection, reagent injection,
It is transported in the order of optical measurement. The difference from the sample measuring device of FIG. 8 is that a plurality of reagents are selected and injected into each reaction container as instructed in advance by a computer program of the device control unit and scattering from the reaction container. This is that the optical measurement units for detecting light are provided at a plurality of locations. Therefore, the reaction vessels can be simultaneously measured by the number of the optical measurement units, and the processing speed for automatically measuring a large amount of blood specimens is increased to some extent.

[0008]

However, in the conventional sample measuring device, a single probe fixed to the reagent injection means is used to aspirate a predetermined amount of reagent from the reagent container and inject it into each reaction container. Therefore, if the reagent aspirated previously is different from the reagent aspirated next, mix with the reagent remaining in the probe to cause a coagulation reaction between the reagents, or measurement by mixing impurities in the reaction container or reagent container There is a risk of deterioration in accuracy, and it was necessary to wash the probe each time the reagent to be dispensed changed. Therefore, there is a problem that the time required for cleaning the probe causes a decrease in the processing speed of the entire sample measuring device. Also, the better the cleanness of the probe,
There is a problem that the cleaning time becomes long.

In order to solve the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sample measuring device capable of omitting the time required for washing a probe and preventing contamination between reagents.

[0010]

To achieve the above object, a sample measuring apparatus of the present invention comprises a reaction container for reacting a sample specimen and a reagent, and a sample injection for injecting a predetermined amount of sample specimen into the reaction container. In a sample measuring device provided with a means and a reagent injecting means for injecting a predetermined amount of a reagent into a reaction container, a dedicated probe for each reagent is provided, and the dedicated probe is attachable to and detachable from the reagent injecting means. ..

[0011]

According to the above construction, since the dedicated probe for each reagent container is provided and the dedicated probe is attachable to and detachable from the reagent injecting means, even when the previously aspirated reagent and the next aspirated reagent are different, Since the dedicated probe for each reagent can be exchanged, even if the reagent remains in the used probe, it will not be mixed with different types of reagents, and contamination between reagents can be eliminated.

Further, when the reagent to be dispensed is changed, it is possible to move to the next dispensing work only by exchanging the dedicated probe, and the probe washing step can be omitted.
The processing speed of the entire sample measuring device can be improved.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of a sample measuring device according to the present invention. A sample container 31 in which sample samples such as plasma, blood, urine, lymph, and body fluid are stored is placed on the sampler 13, while a reagent container 32 in which reagents corresponding to test items are stored is a reagent tray. 12 is mounted. These sample specimens and reagents are kept cool at a temperature of 5 ° C to 10 ° C as necessary to prevent alteration.

A plurality of reaction vessels 34 such as cuvettes are loaded on the reaction table 11, and a measuring means (not shown) is provided for each reaction vessel. When the sample specimen is plasma or blood, a coagulation measuring means for measuring the coagulation ability of the sample specimen as shown in FIG. 5 is provided.

The reaction table 11 linearly moves along a linear guide 41 such as a rail by a linear drive mechanism (not shown) such as a chain or a ball screw, and moves to a predetermined position according to an instruction of a program incorporated in the apparatus control section. It is possible to repeat the movement.

The operation of the sample measuring device 10 will be described below in accordance with the measuring procedure. A plurality of new reaction vessels 33 are arranged in the reaction vessel supply unit 20, and the reaction vessel loading means 16 conveys the reaction vessels 33 one by one and moves the reaction table 11 to move the reaction table 1
1 is loaded in a portion where there is no reaction container.

Next, after the sample injection means 15 such as a pipette sucks a predetermined amount of sample sample from the sample container 31, the reaction table 11 and the sample injection means 15 move and a new reaction container 34 on the reaction table 11 is moved. Then, the probe of the sample injection means 15 is stopped, and the aspirated sample sample is added to the reaction container 34.
Inject. The probe after the injection is washed in the washing unit 60.

Next, reagent injection means 14 such as a dispenser
However, after a predetermined reagent container 32 is selected in accordance with an instruction from the device control unit and a predetermined amount of reagent is sucked from the predetermined reagent container 32, the reaction table 11 and the reagent injection means 14 move, and the sample specimen is injected first. Reagent injection means 14 into the reaction container 34
Then, the probe is stopped and the aspirated reagent is injected into the reaction container 34.

Simultaneously with the injection of the reagent, the measuring means for the reaction container 34 starts the measurement. In the above-mentioned optical detection method, since it is necessary to measure the scattered light intensity before the reagent injection and after the coagulation reaction is completed, the reaction container 34 remains loaded in the reaction table 11 until the coagulation reaction is completed. The reaction table 11 is maintained at a constant temperature so that the temperature at which the sample coagulation reaction is promoted is about 37 ° C. if necessary.

On the other hand, the reaction container after the measurement is discharged from the position of the reaction container discharging means 17 by moving the reaction table 11. The discharged reaction container is conveyed, put into the discharge port 18, and stored in the reaction container storage unit 21. It should be noted that a new reaction container will be loaded in an empty space of the reaction table 11.

When injecting a reagent different from the previously aspirated reagent into the next reaction container, the probe of the reagent injecting means 14 is replaced. The dedicated probe 51 for each reagent is installed in the probe station 50. In FIG. 1, since five reagent containers are placed on the reagent tray 12, five dedicated probes 51 are installed. The number of reagent containers 32 and the number of dedicated probes 51 do not necessarily have to match, and can be increased or decreased depending on the type and number of inspection items.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an example of a dedicated probe used in the sample measuring device of the present invention. Dedicated probe 5
1 is formed in a hollow structure capable of aspirating a reagent, and a flange-shaped protrusion 52 is provided on a side surface thereof, and is hooked on an upper surface of a probe receiver 59. The upper portion of the dedicated probe 51 is formed in a taper shape, and the dedicated probe 51 can be mounted by mutual friction force in conformity with the inner surface shape of the chuck 55 provided in the reagent injection means 14. A pipe 57 is connected to the other side of the chuck 55 and is connected to a reagent pump and a switching valve.

In FIG. 2a, the reagent injection means 14 in the state where the dedicated probe is not attached moves downward to attach the dedicated probe 51 corresponding to the reagent to be dispensed next.
In FIG. 2b, the reagent injection means 14 equipped with the dedicated probe 51 moves upward and further to the position of the predetermined reagent container to suck the reagent, and then moves to the position of the predetermined reaction container and divides. Note. In FIG. 2c, when the reagent to be dispensed next is different, the reagent injection means 14 moves to the original position of the probe receiver 59 and descends, and the protrusion 5
When the claws 58, 58 ′ are moved to the upper side of the nozzle 2 and the reagent injection means 14 is subsequently moved upward, the dedicated probe 51 is moved from the chuck 55.
Comes off. By repeating such an operation, the dedicated probe is attached and detached. The volume of the space inside the dedicated probe 51 is the maximum amount of reagent suction, and it is desirable not to suck the reagent to the chuck 55 or the tube 57 in order to prevent contamination between the reagents.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of another example of the dedicated probe used in the sample measuring apparatus of the present invention. The dedicated probe 51 is formed in a hollow structure so that a reagent can be sucked in, and a flange-shaped projection 5 for receiving the probe is formed on a side surface thereof.
2 is provided, and the upper part thereof is formed in a tubular shape. An O-ring 56 is fitted on the inner surface of the chuck 55 provided in the reagent injecting means 14, so that it can be attached to the upper portion of the dedicated probe 51 by mutual frictional force while maintaining an airtight state.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of another example of the dedicated probe used in the sample measuring device of the present invention. The dedicated probe 51 is formed in a hollow structure so that a reagent can be sucked in, and a flange-shaped projection 5 for receiving the probe is formed on a side surface thereof.
2 is provided, the upper part of which is formed in a tubular shape, and a projection 53 for engaging with the chuck 55 is provided at a part thereof. A groove 54 for engaging with the protrusion 53 is formed on the inner surface of the chuck 55 provided in the reagent injecting means 14, and the dedicated probe 51 is fitted into and attached to the chuck 55.

[0026]

As described in detail above, the sample measuring apparatus of the present invention is provided with a dedicated probe for each reagent container, and the dedicated probe is attachable to and detachable from the reagent injection means, so that the dedicated probe for each reagent is provided. Since it can be used, it is possible to prevent impurities from being mixed into the reagent container or the reaction container and to perform sample measurement with good accuracy. Further, when the sample specimen is blood, plasma, or the like, the clogging of the probe due to the coagulation reaction between the reagent remaining in the crystal probe and the reagent to be injected next can be eliminated.

Further, since it is possible to move to the next dispensing work only by exchanging the dedicated probe, and the probe cleaning step can be omitted, the overall processing speed can be improved and the probe can be installed in the apparatus. There is no need to install a cleaning mechanism, which contributes to space saving and cost reduction of the device internal space.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of a sample measuring device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of an example of a dedicated probe used in the sample measuring device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of another example of the dedicated probe used in the sample measuring device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of another example of a dedicated probe used in the sample measuring device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an optical detection method for measuring the coagulation ability of a blood sample.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a relationship between a state of blood coagulation reaction and a scattered light intensity signal.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of definition of “coagulation time”.

FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram of an example of a conventional blood coagulation measuring device.

FIG. 9 is a schematic configuration diagram of another example of a conventional blood coagulation measurement apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Sample Measuring Device 11 Reaction Table 12 Reagent Tray 13 Sampler 14 Reagent Injecting Means 15 Specimen Injecting Means 16 Reaction Container Loading Means 17 Reaction Vessel Ejecting Means 18 Ejecting Port 20 Reaction Vessel Supplying Section 21 Reaction Vessel Storage 22 Data Inputting Means 23 Display Device 31 Sample Container 32 Reagent Container 33, 34, 35 Reaction Container 41 Linear Guide 50 Probe Station 51 Dedicated Probe 52 Projection 53 Projection 54 Groove 55 Chuck 56 O-ring 57 Tube 58, 58 'Claw 59 Probe Receiver 60 Cleaning Section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A reaction container for reacting a sample specimen with a reagent, a sample injection means for injecting a predetermined amount of sample specimen into the reaction container, and a reagent injecting means for injecting a predetermined amount of reagent into the reaction container. A sample measuring device provided with a dedicated probe for each reagent, wherein the dedicated probe is attachable to and detachable from the reagent injecting means.