Patent Application
20240359183
This invention relates to an automatic analyzer and a reaction vessel thereof.
For an automatic analyzer that analyzes a component in a sample such as blood and urine and that examines the presence or absence and the like of a microorganism, there are a biochemical automatic analyzer that performs a biochemical examination, an immunological automatic analyzer that performs an immunological examination, and the like. For example, the biochemical automatic analyzer performs colorimetric analysis by which a reagent that reacts with a target substance is added to a sample to cause a resultant mixture to be color developed by a chemical reaction, this color development is optically measured as the change with time of an absorbance by an absorptiometric method to calculate its absorbance change rate or the like, and this is substituted into a calibration curve to calculate a target component concentration. In addition, the immunological automatic analyzer performs immunological analysis by which a particular substance to be measured contained in a sample is labeled by an antigen-antibody reaction that causes a specific reaction, an amount of the labeled substance is quantified, and this is substituted into a calibration curve to calculate a target component concentration. In these reactions, a suitable temperature at which each reaction progresses most efficiently is present. Typically, in a sample examination that targets a substance present in a human's body, a reaction efficiency at 37° C. close to a human's body temperature is good. For this, in many automatic analyzers, the chemical reaction of a substance to be measured is performed by a heat block or the like controlled to be near 37° C. (see Patent Literature 1). In addition, known is a combined type automatic analyzer that combines the analyzing methods of the biochemical automatic analyzer and the immunological automatic analyzer into one. A reaction vessel that is used in this combined type automatic analyzer is also studied (see Patent Literature 2).
Patent Literature 1 described above describes the invention in which the improvement in the temperature uniformity of the reaction solutions in the plurality of reaction vessels held by the heat block is achieved by a simple method and the stability of the measurement accuracy is improved while the apparatus itself is prevented from being increased in size. In addition, Patent Literature 2 described above describes the shape of the reaction vessel that can measure an amount of light from the reaction solution without lowering a function of maintaining the reaction vessel at the predetermined temperature.
On the other hand, a suitable holding mechanism when the reaction vessel is accommodated in the heat block is not described. In the combined type automatic analyzer that combines the analyzing methods of the biochemical automatic analyzer and the immunological automatic analyzer into one, a cylindrical shape is adopted in order to handle the reaction vessel by the same mechanism as the tip and in addition, to improve the robustness of the position adjustment at the time of insertion.
In addition, the reaction solution in the disposable reaction vessel held in the heat block is irradiated with light to measure an amount of the transmitted light or the scattered light. At the time of this light amount measurement, the heat block is rotating, so that the reaction vessel rattles due to vibration and the optical axis is shifted, resulting in a decrease in the measurement accuracy.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic analyzer that has a holding mechanism capable of preventing a reaction vessel from rattling without lowering a function of maintaining the reaction vessel at a predetermined temperature, and the reaction vessel.
In order to achieve the above object, an automatic analyzer is provided that analyzes a mixture of a sample and a reagent contained in a reaction vessel. The automatic analyzer comprises: a heat block including a hole into which the reaction vessel is inserted and an urging member that urges the reaction vessel. In the automatic analyzer, the reaction vessel includes a first protrusion on a part of a side surface, and when the reaction vessel is lowered from an upper side to a lower side in a vertical direction as it is inserted into the hole, the urging member is operated so as to be retreated to an outside of the reaction vessel along the first protrusion, and also is installed so as to urge the first protrusion downward in the vertical direction when the reaction vessel is fit in the hole.
Further, in order to achieve the above object, a reaction vessel is provided that contains a mixture of a sample and a reagent. The reaction vessel comprises: a first protrusion on a part of a side surface for urging with a spring; and a second protrusion as apart of the side surface, for guiding a light-transmitting surface, which is provided at a position deviating on a vertical line from the first protrusion, to be vertical.
According to the invention, it is possible to provide an automatic analyzer that has a holding mechanism capable of preventing a reaction vessel from rattling without, lowering a function of maintaining the reaction vessel at a predetermined temperature. Objects, configurations, and effects other than the above will be apparent from the description of the following embodiments.
Hereinbelow, preferred embodiments of an automatic analyzer according to the present invention will be described in accordance with the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that in the following description and accompanying drawings, constituting elements having the same function configurations are indicated by the same reference numerals, and the overlapped description is thus omitted.
Referring to
The sample transport path 103 transports a sample rack 102 on which a plurality of sample containers 101 each containing a sample are mounted, to a position that can be accessed by a sample dispensing unit 106. The sample contained in the sample container 101 is dispensed by the sample dispensing unit 106 into a reaction vessel 112 held in the incubator 105.
The transfer unit 108 grips, by a gripper, the reaction vessel 112 and a dispensing tip that are consumable articles disposed on a tray, and transfers them. The reaction vessel 112 that is transferred by the transfer unit 108 from the tray to the incubator 105 is used for containing a mixture of the sample and a reagent, and is exchanged for each analysis. That is, the transfer unit 108 transfers the unused reaction vessel 112 to the incubator 105.
A plurality of reagent containers 110 each containing the reagent are stored in the reagent disk 104. To reduce the deterioration of the reagent, an interior of the reagent disk 104 is held at a temperature lower than a room temperature. In addition, the reagent disk 104 is covered by a reagent disk cover 111. It should be noted that in
The incubator 105 holds a plurality of reaction vessels 112 each containing the mixture of the sample and the reagent, and, to react the mixture, is held at a predetermined temperature, for example, at near 37° C. The mixture is reacted for a predetermined time in the process in which the reaction vessel 112 is held in the incubator 105 held at the predetermined temperature, and thus becomes a reaction solution used for analysis. The incubator 105 may be referred to as a heat block.
The spectrophotometer 113 measures an absorbance of the reaction solution in order to analyze a particular component contained in the reaction solution contained in the reaction vessel 112. The spectrophotometer 113 is disposed adjacent to the incubator 105, and has a light source, a spectroscopic element, and an optical detector. A halogen lamp is used for the light source, a diffraction grating is used for the spectroscopic element, and a photomultiplier tube, a photodiode, and the like are used for the optical detector. Light radiated from the light source is optically separated into each measurement wavelength by the spectroscopic element to be then emitted to the reaction solution contained in the reaction vessel 112, and an intensity of the light that has passed through the reaction solution is detected by the optical detector. An absorbance Aλ related to a certain wavelength λ is calculated by the following equation by using an intensity Iλ0 of the light emitted to the reaction solution and an intensity Iλ of the light that has passed through the reaction solution.
In addition, the absorbance Aλ is proportional to an optical path length L and a concentration C of the particular component contained in the reaction solution, so that the next equation is established.
Here, ε is a proportional constant determined for each type of the particular component. That is, the concentration C of the particular component is calculated from the value of the absorbance Aλ calculated from the intensity Iλ of the transmitted light of the reaction solution and the optical path length L.
The control unit 109 is a device that controls the operation of each portion, receives the input of data necessary for analysis, and displays and stores the result of the analysis, and is, for example, a computer.
The optical system includes a light source 204, a condensing lens 205, a concave diffraction grating 206, and a receiver 207. Light emitted from the light source 204 is focused by the condensing lens 205, is limited in terms of an irradiation range by the irradiation slit 202, and is incident to the reaction vessel 112, and then, light having a light amount according to an absorbance of a reaction solution 208 in the reaction vessel 112 is caused to exit, is limited in terms of a light reception range by the light reception slit 203, is optically separated by the concave diffraction grating 206, and is received by the receiver 207. A light amount at each wavelength of the light received here is converted into an electric signal, thereby measuring an absorbance.
A first embodiment provides an automatic analyzer in which a torsion coil spring for urging a reaction vessel is provided on a heat block having a plurality of holes on which the reaction vessel is mounted, and the torsion coil spring is mounted near the hole of the heat block, and has an arm that directly urges the reaction vessel and a coil that gives a restoring force to the arm. The first embodiment is an embodiment having a configuration in which the reaction vessel into which a reaction solution in which a reagent and a sample are mixed is injected includes a first protrusion on a part of a side surface, and when the reaction vessel is inserted in the hole, the arm of the torsion coil spring is operated so as to be retreated along the first protrusion, and, when the reaction vessel is fitted in the hole, it urges the first protrusion horizontally with a lower side in the vertical direction and urges the reaction vessel to press against a wall of the hole.
That is, in consideration of the insertion and taking out of the reaction vessel 112, a shape of the protrusion 501 is desirably a mountain shape in which the torsion coil spring easily passes over the protrusion 501, and the protrusion 501 for urging is positioned on an upper side with respect to two flat surfaces 502 that are opposite and parallel and are provided near a bottom surface of the reaction vessel in order to measure an absorbance. In addition, the protrusion and the heat block are required to be processed so as not to interfere with each other, and since the protrusion becomes a portion that does not come into contact with the wall surface, it is desirable that the protrusion is provided on an upper side with respect to a liquid surface height 503 at a maximum reaction solution amount (a total liquid amount of the sample and the reagent), thereby not affecting temperature increasing performance.
For the heat block and the reaction vessel that include the above configurations, as illustrated in
Thus, an improvement in the measurement accuracy of the absorbance is enabled without rattling and rotating the reaction vessel 112. In addition, since the reaction vessel is pressed against the wall surface of the installation hole, heat from the heat block 200 is easily transmitted to the reaction vessel 112, which can lead also to an improvement in temperature control performance.
As a second embodiment, a variation of the reaction vessel of the first embodiment will be described. The second embodiment is an embodiment of a reaction vessel that contains a mixture of a sample and a reagent, the reaction vessel being configured to include a first protrusion on a part of a side surface for urging with a spring, and a second protrusion as a part of the side surface, for guiding a light-transmitting surface, which is provided at a position deviating on a vertical line from the first protrusion, to be vertical.
As illustrated in the drawing, the number of protrusions 701 is not limited to two and may be one, and the protrusion 701 may be located at any position with respect to the light-transmitting surface as long as the protrusion 701 can guide the light-transmitting surface such that the optical axis is vertical. For the shape, when the number of protrusions 701 is two, the second protrusion may have a different shape. The number of guide grooves is two, whereas the number of protrusions 501 may be one, and the number of guide grooves and the number of protrusions are not necessarily required to be equal. The guide groove may be provided not only on the resin part 303 but also on the heat block or both of them.
When the operation direction of the torsion coil spring 302 is limited to the horizontal direction, an insertion force is considered to be increased due to friction of the torsion coil spring 302 with a supporting portion. As a method for solving this, in this embodiment, the gap 503 that allows the torsion coil spring 302 to be operated in the vertical direction is provided. In this configuration, the torsion coil spring 302 is moved in the gap 503 in the direction of the arrow indicated by
However, to ensure that the torsion coil spring 302 passes over the protrusion 501 before the reaction vessel 112 finally reaches a position where the reaction vessel 112 is fixed, the stopper 305 is desirably provided at such a position that the torsion coil spring 302 comes to an upper portion with respect to the protrusion 501 at the fixing position of the reaction vessel 112.
In addition, a spring constant of the coil of the torsion coil spring 302 desirably has a value such that the arm of the spring is held close to the horizontal at the time of insertion, and since it is considered that with a balance such that the coil is largely compressed earlier, the coil is inclined with respect to a guide axis and the movement cannot be smooth, the balance at the spring constant such that the coil is lowered earlier than the arm is desirably avoided.
The inclination that guides the torsion coil spring 302 to escape not only in the horizontal direction but also in the vertical direction when the reaction vessel 112 is inserted is provided on the stopper 306, so that a friction force can be reduced, to thereby insert the cuvette by a lighter force. In this case, the torsion coil spring 302 is moved in a direction of an arrow indicated in
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments and modification examples described above, and further includes various modification examples. For example, the examples and modification examples described above have been described in detail to simply describe the present invention, and are not necessarily required to include all the described configurations. In addition, a part of the configuration of an embodiment or modification example can be replaced with the configurations of other embodiments and modification examples, and in addition, the configuration of an embodiment or modification example can also be added with the configurations of other embodiments and modification examples. In addition, a part of the configuration of each embodiment and modification example can also be subjected to addition, deletion, and replacement with respect to the configurations included in other embodiments and modification examples.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-114065 | Jul 2021 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2022/025066 | 6/23/2022 | WO |
