Patent Application
20220404382
The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer.
In an automatic analyzer in the related art, in order to maintain a certain level of performance, a user is required to clean a nozzle or a probe that dispenses a sample or a reagent, and a stirring paddle that stirs a bead reagent. In addition, since a reagent bottle is mounted, the user may be required to take the reagent bottle in and out of a reagent storage unit inside the automatic analyzer.
However, depending on a unit layout in the automatic analyzer and an environment such as an inspection room where the automatic analyzer is provided, the user may have to access a unit such as a bound/free (B/F) separation unit arranged from a front to a back of the analyzer. In this case, the user needs to be careful not to come into contact with another unit such as a reagent dispensing mechanism in the front of the analyzer, and manually retract an obstructing unit. When the user comes into contact with the unit, there is a risk of damage to the unit, and it is necessary to carry out a work while paying attention not to come into contact with the unit in the front of the analyzer.
Therefore, in the technique described in PTL 1, a reagent dispensing mechanism retraction unit with which a reagent dispensing mechanism is retracted is disposed on a trajectory of an arm of the reagent dispensing mechanism, and a reagent dispensing nozzle is retracted by the reagent dispensing mechanism retraction unit to prevent direct contact with the reagent dispensing nozzle, a user, etc.
PTL 1: WO2019/026498
In an automatic analyzer to which the above-described method for retracting a reagent dispensing mechanism is applied, the contact with the reagent dispensing nozzle can be prevented, and according to a further study on a positional relationship between a retraction unit and a cleaning unit of a bead mixer mechanism that stirs a bead reagent, miniaturization and simplification of the automatic analyzer are desired.
In order to solve the above-described problem, an object of the invention is to provide an automatic analyzer capable of reducing a risk of damage due to contact with a rod-shaped member such as a dispensing nozzle and a stirring paddle of a bead mixer mechanism, and realizing miniaturization and simplification.
In order to achieve the above-described object, the invention provides an automatic analyzer including a storage unit configured to store a rod-shaped member along a vertical direction and a cleaning unit configured to clean the rod-shaped member.
In order to achieve the above-described object, the invention provides an automatic analyzer including a cleaning tank configured to clean a stirring paddle, a standby position configured to make the stirring paddle which is juxtaposed to the cleaning tank wait, and an inflow port configured to flow cleaning water into the cleaning tank, in which the standby position is arranged so that the cleaning water overflowing from the cleaning tank flows into the standby position.
An automatic analyzer that reduces a risk of damage due to contact with a rod-shaped member such as a stirring paddle during maintenance and achieves miniaturization and simplification can be provided.
Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, an automatic analyzer will be described as an example. The automatic analyzer includes, for example, a biochemical automatic analyzer and an immunological automatic analyzer. However, the above automatic analyzer is an example of the invention, and the invention is not limited to the embodiments described below, and extensively includes an analyzer that makes a specimen react with a reagent and analyzes the specimen based on a reaction result. For example, the invention may include a mass spectrometer used for a clinical examination, a coagulation analyzer that measures a blood coagulation time, and the like. In addition, the invention may also be applied to a combined system that combines the mass spectrometer and the coagulation analyzer with the biochemical automatic analyzer and the immunological automatic analyzer, or an automatic analysis system to which these analyzers are applied.
In the present description, standby means to retract a rod-shaped member of the analyzer in order to prevent contact between the rod-shaped member and an operator during a maintenance operation of the analyzer. In addition to a stirring paddle, the rod-shaped member includes dispensing nozzles such as a reagent dispensing nozzle and a specimen dispensing nozzle, and the invention can be applied to a rod-shaped member of the automatic analyzer other than the stirring paddle.
Embodiment 1 is an embodiment of an automatic analyzer that automatically analyzes a specific component in a specimen such as blood or urine by using an immune response. In an immunoassay method using the immune response, a measurement target component and a labeling substance are bound to each other by an antigen-antibody reaction, and the labeling substance is quantitatively or qualitatively measured according to signals (such as light emission and absorption) obtained from the labeling substance.
In this case, in order to remove an excessively added labeling substance, an operation which is B/F separation is performed to remove the labeling substance that is not bound to the target substance. In the automatic analyzer, a method using magnetic beads is widely adopted to automatically perform the B/F separation. In the B/F separation using the magnetic beads, the magnetic beads are further bound to an immune complex in which a measurement target substance and the labeling substance are bound to each other, and a solution is substituted with the magnetic beads adsorbed by a magnet, whereby the excess labeling substance is removed from the reaction solution. This method is suitable for automation and is thus widely used in the automatic analyzer.
However, since the magnetic beads have a specific gravity larger than that of the solution, the magnetic beads sink, resulting in non-uniformity of concentration. The non-uniform concentration of the magnetic beads causes an analysis result to be incorrect. Therefore, the automatic analyzer includes a mechanism for stirring a reagent containing the magnetic beads (hereinafter, referred to as a bead reagent) accommodated in a reagent vessel to make the concentration uniform.
Stirring of the magnetic beads is often performed by putting a stirring member having a paddle-shaped structure in a bead reagent solution and rotating the stirring member. After stirring the bead reagent, the stirred solution adheres to the stirring member. When another solution is stirred with the stirring member to which the solution adheres in this way, mixing of the solutions may occur, compositions may change, and analysis may not be performed correctly. Therefore, it is necessary to clean the stirring member after stirring.
In order to deal with the above-described problem, in the present embodiment, a stirring paddle that stirs the bead reagent, a cleaning tank that cleans the stirring paddle, a standby position that makes the stirring paddle which is juxtaposed to the cleaning tank wait, and an inflow port that flows cleaning water into the cleaning tank are provided, and the standby position is arranged so that the cleaning water overflowing from the cleaning tank flows into the standby position.
The automatic analyzer shown in
The specimen rack 5a accommodates a plurality of specimen vessels, that are sample vessels, for accommodating biological specimens such as blood and urine, and the specimen rack 5a is transported on the specimen transport line 5 in a state where the specimen vessels are accommodated thereon.
A reagent cool box 21 has a cylindrical shape and accommodates the reagent disk 2. At least a part of an upper surface of the reagent disk 2 is covered with a reagent disk cover. A reagent vessel loading port 20 for attaching and detaching the reagent vessel 3 to and from the reagent disk 2 is provided on an upper surface of the reagent cool box 21. The reagent vessel loading port 20 is provided with an openable reagent vessel loading port lid. The reagent cool box 21 has a heat insulating function in order to control the reagent vessel 3 to a constant temperature.
The incubator 9 includes a reaction vessel arrangement unit in which a plurality of reaction vessels 14 for making a specimen react with a reagent are arranged, and a temperature adjustment mechanism (not shown) that adjusts a temperature of the reaction vessels 14 to a desired temperature. The specimen dispensing mechanism 6 includes a rotation drive mechanism and a vertical drive mechanism, and can aspirate the specimen from the specimen vessel by these drive mechanisms, move the specimen above the reaction vessels 14 accommodated in the incubator 9, and dispense the specimen into the reaction vessels 14.
The reagent dispensing mechanism 15 also includes a rotation drive mechanism and a vertical drive mechanism, and can aspirate the reagent from the reagent vessel 3 by these drive mechanisms, move the reagent above the reaction vessels 14 accommodated in the incubator 9, and dispense the reagent into the reaction vessels 14.
As will be described later, the bead mixer mechanism 16 that stirs the bead reagent includes a rotation drive mechanism and a vertical drive mechanism, and stirs the reagent in the reagent vessel 3 by rotating the rod-shaped stirring paddle 17. In addition, the automatic analyzer 1 includes a bead mixer cleaning unit 18 that cleans the stirring paddle 17, and a reagent dispensing nozzle cleaning unit 19 that cleans a reagent dispensing nozzle.
Specimen dispensing tips 10 and the reaction vessels 14 are placed on a tip rack 7 which is a specimen dispensing tip/reaction vessel supply unit. A specimen dispensing tip/reaction vessel transport mechanism 8 transports the reaction vessels 14 from the tip rack 7 to the incubator 9 via a specimen dispensing tip buffer 11. A specimen dispensing tip/reaction vessel disposal hole 12 and a stirring mechanism 13 are provided on a specimen dispensing tip buffer 11 side.
The specimen dispensing tip/reaction vessel transport mechanism 8 transports a plurality of unused reaction vessels 14 and a plurality of unused specimen dispensing tips 10 from the tip rack 7 to the incubator 9 or to the specimen dispensing tip buffer 11 accessed by the specimen dispensing mechanism 6, or transports the reaction vessel 14 containing a reaction solution from the incubator 9 to the stirring mechanism 13.
The B/F separation unit 30 provided in a detection unit cover 32 includes a separation unit 34 that collects magnetic beads, the B/F separation probe 33 that aspirates the reaction solution and discharges a buffer solution, a B/F separation probe cleaning unit 35 that cleans the B/F separation probe 33, a B/F separation stirring unit 36 that redistributes the magnetic beads once collected, a transport mechanism 37 that transports the reaction vessels 14 provided in the incubator 9 to the B/F separation unit 30 and the detection unit 31, and the like.
The detection unit 31 includes a reaction solution aspiration nozzle (not shown) that aspirates the reaction solution in the reaction vessel 14, a photomultiplier tube or a light source lamp, a spectroscope, a photodiode (not shown), and the like, has a function of adjusting temperatures thereof, and analyzes the reaction solution.
Further, the automatic analyzer 1 includes a control unit 200 that controls all operations. The control unit 200 can be implemented by a normal computer configuration, and includes a central processing unit (CPU), a storage unit (memory), an external storage device such as a hard disk, an operation unit, and the like. The operation unit is implemented by, for example, a display unit which is a display, and an input device such as a mouse or a keyboard. A control device (not shown) connected to the control unit 200 may be implemented by hardware by a dedicated circuit board, or may be implemented by software executed by a host computer connected to the automatic analyzer 1.
When the control device is implemented by hardware, such a configuration can be implemented by integrating, on a wiring board or in a semiconductor chip or a package, a plurality of calculators that execute processing. When the control device is implemented by software, such a configuration can be implemented by mounting a high-speed general-purpose CPU on the host computer and executing a program that executes desired calculation processing. An existing device can be upgraded with a recording medium on which the program is recorded. These devices, circuits, and computers are connected by a wired or wireless network, and appropriately transmit and receive data.
Meanwhile, the bead mixer cleaning unit 18 includes a cleaning tank 181 and a standby position 182 that makes the stirring paddle 17 which is juxtaposed to the cleaning tank 181 wait and that stores the stirring paddle 17, and a water supply port 183 that supplies water to the cleaning tank 181. The cleaning tank 181 which is a cleaning unit and the standby position 182 which is a storage unit are configured such that the stirring paddle 17 can be stored along a vertical direction, and are arranged in parallel in a horizontal direction, whereby miniaturization and simplification of the analyzer can be achieved. A vertical length of the standby position 182 is longer than a vertical length of the cleaning tank 181. This is to prevent a risk of damage to the stirring paddle 17 during standby.
The cleaning tank 181 and the standby position 182 are provided with drain ports 184 and 185, respectively, and the water supply port 183, the drain port 184, and the drain port 185 are connected to valves 186. Further, the three valves 186 are connected to a drain 187, a drain 188, and a pump 189. The water inside the cleaning tank 181 and the water inside the standby position 182 flow to the drains 187 and 188 via the drain ports 184 and 185 and the valves 186. The pump 189 can supply cleaning water from a water supply tank 190 to the water supply port 183 under the control of a pump control device.
As shown in
An overflow pipe 192 as a discharge hole from which the cleaning water overflows is provided at a predetermined height of the cylindrical member 193, preferably at a position above a center in an extension direction. Thus, the discharge hole for discharging the cleaning water to an outside of a cylindrical body is provided in an inner wall of the cylindrical body and above a vertical center of the cylindrical body. An overflow height due to the discharge hole is made higher than a liquid level height of the reagent vessel 3. With such a configuration, an automatic analyzer having the same effect as that of the configuration shown in
As is clear from
As shown in
In this way, the standby position 182 that makes the stirring paddle 17 wait and stores the stirring paddle 17 and an overflowing pipe for the cleaning water can be integrated with each other to achieve miniaturization and simplification of the analyzer. In addition, the cleaning water from the cleaning tank 181 is made to be the overflow 194 to the standby position 182 integrated with the cleaning tank 181, whereby the wall surface of the standby position 182 can be cleaned, and dust or the like can be prevented from adhering to the wall surface. By having such a standby position 182, a risk of damage due to contact with a rod-shaped member such as the stirring paddle 17 during maintenance or the like can be reduced. Further, the paddle contact prevention ring 191 is provided on the upper part of the standby position 182, an unexpected external force can be prevented from being applied to the stirring paddle 17 when the stirring paddle 17 is stored in the standby position 182 during the maintenance or the like, and the risk of damage to the stirring paddle 17 can be reduced. The tapered shape of the lower surface or the upper and lower surfaces of the paddle contact prevention ring 191 can reduce the risk of damage when the stirring paddle 17 is taken in and out of the standby position 182.
Subsequently, an operation of cleaning steps of the stirring paddle 17 during an analysis operation of the automatic analyzer of the present embodiment will be described with reference to
Hereinafter, an automatic or manual separation operation during maintenance will be described with reference to
As shown in the operation flowchart during the maintenance in
Since the automatic analyzer of Embodiment 1 described in detail above includes the standby position, during the maintenance or the like, the risk of damage due to contact with the stirring paddle can be reduced. In addition, the standby position of the stirring paddle and the overflow pipe of the cleaning water can be integrated with each other to achieve miniaturization and simplification. Further, the cleaning water from the cleaning tank overflows to the standby position, whereby the wall surface of the standby position can be cleaned to prevent dust or the like from adhering to the wall surface. Furthermore, the paddle contact prevention ring is provided at the upper part of the standby position, whereby during the maintenance or the like, an unexpected external force can be prevented from being applied to the paddle during standby or storage or the like, and the risk of damage to the paddle can be reduced. Furthermore, the inner diameter of the paddle contact prevention ring is smaller than the inner diameter of the wall surface of the standby position, whereby the stirring paddle can be prevented from coming into contact with the wall surface of the standby position.
Embodiment 2 is an embodiment of a reagent dispensing mechanism of an automatic analyzer when a rod-shaped member is a reagent dispensing nozzle. In the reagent dispensing mechanism, there is a concern that an adsorbed substance remaining in the dispensing nozzle will be released and mixed in a next reagent when the next reagent is dispensed, and in order to prevent this situation, it is necessary to provide a cleaning mechanism for the reagent dispensing nozzle.
In the reagent dispensing mechanism 90 of
The reagent dispensing nozzle cleaning unit 100 includes a reagent dispensing cleaning tank 101, a nozzle guide storage unit 102, a water supply port 103, a cleaning liquid supply port 104, a cleaning tank 105, a drain port 106, a standby position 107, a drain port 108, a valve 109, a cleaning liquid syringe 110, and the like. Similar to Embodiment 1, the cleaning water is sent to the reagent dispensing cleaning tank 101 by an operation of a pump controlled by a pump control device, and is used to clean the reagent dispensing nozzle 93 together with a cleaning liquid. The used cleaning water flows to the drain via the drain port 106 and the valve.
Similar to Embodiment 1, the reagent dispensing mechanism of the present embodiment also has a standby position, whereby during the maintenance or the like, the risk of damage due to contact with the reagent dispensing nozzle can be reduced. By integrating the standby position of the reagent dispensing nozzle and the overflow pipe of the cleaning water, miniaturization and simplification of the analyzer can be achieved. Further, the cleaning water from the cleaning tank overflows to the standby position, whereby the wall surface of the standby position can be cleaned to prevent dust or the like from adhering to the wall surface.
The invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and includes various modifications. For example, the above-described embodiments are described in detail for a better understanding of the invention, and the invention is not necessarily limited to those including all configurations described above. In the embodiments described above, the stirring paddle and the reagent dispensing nozzle are described as the rod-shaped member, but the same configuration can be applied to the standby or storage of other rod-shaped members of the automatic analyzer such as a specimen dispensing nozzle.
Further, although an example of creating a program for implementing a part or all of the configurations, functions, and control units described above is mainly described, it is needless to say that a part or all of them may be implemented by hardware, for example, by designing an integrated circuit. That is, all or a part of the functions of the processing units may be implemented by the integrated circuit such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a field programmable gate array (FPGA) instead of the program.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-205278 | Nov 2019 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2020/039206 | 10/19/2020 | WO |
