Patent Application
20200386673
The present invention relates to a detecting device, particularly a hemoglobin detecting device.
Hemoglobin exists in the blood of humans and most animals. When tissue inflammation, cancer tissue growth, or ulcers occur in internal organs, blood might leak from the damaged tissue, causing hemoglobin to appear in secretion such as stool, urine, saliva, or snivel. Therefore, detecting the hemoglobin in such secretion can be a crucial index for some specific lesions or diseases. For instance, stool occult blood test is an index for colorectal cancer, urine occult blood test is an index for bladder cancer, and sputum occult blood test is an index for bronchitis or lung cancer.
Among all cancers, colorectal cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers around the world. In the USA, 8% of the total cancer cases is colorectal cancer, which is ranked the 4th among all cancers with a mortality rate ranked the second. China has 18.6% of the global colorectal cancer cases, with 20.1% of the mortalities in the world.
As stated above, one of the most commonly used indexes for colorectal cancer is the occult blood test. In other words, if blood or hemoglobin appears in the stool, it is likely that colorectal cancer or early stage symptom of such is appearing.
Nowadays, the most common solution for stool occult blood test is immunochemical fecal occult blood test (i-FOBT). In the procedure of i-FOBT, the subject is required to collect a sample of the fecal secretion, and send the sample back to the hospital by delivery or in person, so that the medical technologist can perform the occult blood test on the sample. However, such process needs long waiting time and leads to inconvenience, so normally the general public may only go through related physical examinations once a year or two. The inspection cycle is too long to discover the symptom as soon as it shows. On the other hand, blood tissue is not uniformly distributed in the stool, and the sample is only a small portion of the stool that may not include the part that contains blood, leading to a pseudo-negative result, which means the result of the occult blood test is negative, but a tumor or a polyp is already growing inside the intestine and causes bleeding. On the other hand, a tumor or a polyp may be bleeding intermittently instead of constantly. If the lesion did not bleed before or on the day the fecal sample is taken, the result of the occult blood test might also be pseudo-negative and leads to misdiagnosis.
In one of the related arts of remotely detecting stool or urine occult blood, a fluorescent agent or oxidant must be added into the toilet bowl before irradiating the solution in the toilet bowl with excitation light, and then detecting the photoluminescence from the solution to determine whether the secretion contains hemoglobin or blood. The operator must prepare the chemicals, leading to inconvenience.
In some other related art of remotely detecting stool or urine occult blood which also utilizes photoluminescence detection method, analyte such as stool or urine must be added into a reaction solution. The reaction solution includes multiple strong reducing agents that may cause burn when in contact with the skin.
In another related art, the operator of an occult blood test must collect the sample of the stool, and put it in the dilution liquid. After the testing process, the container must be cleaned with extra cleaning processes.
To sum up, among the related arts of secretion occult blood test, some require collected sample of stool or urine, while some require the use of additional chemicals for reaction such as fluorescent agent or reducing agent. Those procedures are complex and inconvenient, or even lead to potential danger, which may not be done frequently and may not be suitable for users to conduct at home.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a hemoglobin detecting device that cooperates with a smart device.
The hemoglobin detecting device includes a shell component, a fixing part, a processor unit, a transmission unit, a light source and a light detection module. The fixing part is connected to the shell component, so that the shell component can be engaged with a smart device. The light detection module is mounted inside the shell component, and the transmission unit, the light source, and the light detection module are electrically connected to the processor unit. The light source generates a first light beam, which passes through an analyte solution and is then reflected to form a second light beam. The light detection module receives the second light beam and generates a light intensity information.
The processor unit receives the light intensity information from the light detection module, and determines whether the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches a target spectrum. When the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum, the processor unit generates a positive result information; when the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution does not match the target spectrum, the processor unit generates a negative result information.
Furthermore, when the processor unit generates the positive result information or the negative result information, the transmission unit receives the positive result information or the negative result information, and transmits the positive result information or the negative result information to the smart device, with which the hemoglobin device is engaged.
The hemoglobin detecting device is designed to be engaged with a smart device such as a smart phone, a tablet computer, or a PDA, etc. The hemoglobin detecting device is electrically connected to the smart device through the transmission unit, so that the user can operate the detecting device and be informed of the result through the smart device. When the light source is turned on and points the light source to a container containing the analyte solution, the first light beam passes through the analyte solution, and the first light beam is reflected by a reflection surface of the container to form the second light beam.
The analyte solution is a liquid that includes human fecal extraction, for instance, the liquid solution in a toilet bowl that contains stool. When stool carrying blood tissue falls into the water in the toilet bowl, the blood in the stool will dissolve into the water around it. That is, if occult blood exists in the stool, the blood will also exist in the water in the toilet bowl, which is the analyte solution of the present invention. Furthermore, when the first light beam passes through the analyte solution, the first light beam will be partially absorbed by the analyte solution, and the second light beam, the reflected light beam of the first light beam, will contain information of the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution.
When the processor unit receives the light intensity information generated by the light detection module, the processor unit determines whether the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum. The target spectrum is the absorption spectrum of a blood solution. If the processor unit determines that the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum, it is confirmed that the analyte solution contains blood tissues, which indicates that the stool in the toilet bowl contains occult blood. Therefore the processor unit generates a positive result information. If the processor unit determines that the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution does not match the target spectrum, it is confirmed that the analyte solution does not contain blood tissue, which indicates that the stool in the toilet bowl does not contain occult blood. Therefore the processor unit generates a negative result information.
Since the hemoglobin detecting device of the present invention analyzes the absorption spectrum of the liquid containing the stool rather than testing the stool itself, it avoids the possibility of a pseudo-negative result caused by the collected sample not containing the part with blood, thus improving the reliability of the test results. In the process of detecting occult blood in stool using the hemoglobin detecting device, there is no sample collecting, no solution stirring, and no long waiting time for the result, thus enhancing the convenience of the whole process, with no consumable needed at all in the process. On the other hand, the device directly performs analyzation on the absorption spectrum of the solution itself by sending the first light beam and receiving the second light beam. So there is no need for adding any chemical agent such as fluorescent agent, reaction agent, or reductant, thereby eliminating the risks of user exposure to chemicals or environmental pollution.
The hemoglobin detecting device provides a convenient, fast and easy means to detect stool occult blood. The detecting device can be easily mounted onto a smart device and communicates with the smart device by either wireless connection or wired connection. The user can execute an application installed in the smart device to activate the detecting process. When the detecting device generates the result information of the detection, the user can be notified of the outcome instantly. The hemoglobin detecting device is applicable to any smart device with the application installed. Therefore, any ordinary user can perform self-examination for stool occult blood at home and obtain a result instantly, doing health management efficiently and independently.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
The processor unit 13 receives the light intensity information from the light detection module 16, and determines whether the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches a target spectrum. When the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum, the processor unit 13 generates a positive result information; when the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution does not match the target spectrum, the processor unit 13 generates a negative result information.
Furthermore, when the processor unit 13 generates the positive result information or the negative result information, the transmission unit 14 receives the positive result information or the negative result information and transmits the positive result information or the negative result information to the smart device 20, with which the hemoglobin device is engaged.
With reference to
In a first embodiment of the present invention, the fixing part 12 and the outer wall of the shell component 11 form a C-shaped structure, and the width of the hollow part of the C-shaped structure fits a thickness or a width of the smart device 20. As a result, the user can mount the hemoglobin detecting device 10 onto the smart device 20 easily by pushing the C-shaped structure of the hemoglobin detecting device 10 onto the edge of the smart device 20 to engage with the smart device 20. In the present embodiment, when the hemoglobin detecting device 10 is mounted to the smart device 20, the light source 15 and the light detection module 16 are pointing toward the backside of the smart device 20, which is the opposite side of the display module of the smart device 20.
With reference to
With reference to
With reference to
A user may hold the smart device 20 along with the detecting device 10 on it toward the analyte solution in a toilet bowl. The user may further point the first light beam L1 to the analyte solution, so that the light detection module 16 receives the second light beam L2, which has passed through the analyte solution and been reflected by the inside surface of the toilet bowl. Therefore, the second light beam L2 will contain the absorption of the analyte solution. Preferably, a user should direct the first light beam L1 to a relatively shallow point in the toilet bowl.
When the user points the first light beam L1 to the analyte solution in the toilet bowl, the light beam can travel through the liquid with a better transmittance if the light beam is directed to a shallow position in the container without being blocked by suspended matter in the liquid, so that the light detection module 16 can receive a second light beam L2 with a higher intensity and obtain a more accurate test result. Furthermore, according to the shape of a toilet bowl, the better position to perform the test is a point closer to the front end of the toilet bowl, which is usually a shallower point in the toilet bowl. Therefore, when the smart device 20 receives the target image from the camera module 21, the smart device 20 further displays a suggested target position icon at the front end of the toilet bowl in the target image, providing the user with a suggested position to point the first light beam L1 thereto.
When the processor unit generates the positive or negative result information and the transmission unit transmits the result information to the smart device 20, the smart device 20 displays a positive or a negative result icon.
For example, with reference to
With reference to
The following embodiments describe the detailed method to determine whether the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches a target spectrum.
In a seventh embodiment of the present invention, the second light beam L2 includes a first wavelength light, a second wavelength light, a third wavelength light, and a fourth wavelength light. The light detection module 16 receives the second light beam L2, and generates a light intensity information. The light intensity information includes a first intensity signal S1 relating to the first wavelength light, a second intensity signal S2 relating to the second wavelength light, a third intensity signal S3 relating to the third wavelength light, and a fourth intensity signal S4 relating to the fourth wavelength light. A wavelength of the first wavelength light is smaller than a wavelength of the second wavelength light, the wavelength of the second wavelength light is smaller than a wavelength of the third wavelength light, and the wavelength of the third wavelength light is smaller than a wavelength of the fourth wavelength light.
Furthermore, the processor unit 13 receives the light intensity information from the light detection module 16, and determines whether the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches a target spectrum. The spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum if:
When the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum, the processor unit 13 generates a positive result information; when the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution does not match the target spectrum, the processor unit 13 generates a negative result information.
With reference to
generating a first light beam L1 (S901);
receiving a second light beam L2, which is formed by the first light beam L1 passing through the analyte solution and being reflected (S902)
generating a light intensity information (S903); wherein the light intensity information includes a first intensity signal S1 relating to the first wavelength light, a second intensity signal S2 relating to the second wavelength light, a third intensity signal S3 relating to the third wavelength light, and a fourth intensity signal S4 relating to the fourth wavelength light;
determining whether the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum according to the light intensity information (S904);
when the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum, generating a positive result information (S905);
when the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution does not match the target spectrum, generating a negative result information (S906); wherein the spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum if:
In an embodiment of the present invention, the wavelength of the first wavelength light is 500 nm, the wavelength of the second wavelength light is 541 nm, the wavelength of the third wavelength light is 550 nm, and the wavelength of the fourth wavelength light is 577 nm.
According to the target spectrum shown in
With reference to
In the eighth embodiment, the processor unit further determines whether the first intensity signal S1, the second intensity signal S2, the third intensity signal S3 and the fourth intensity signal S4 should present a zig-zag distribution, which is another feature of the target spectrum. With such further condition, the accuracy of the detection is improved.
With reference to
In a ninth embodiment of the present invention, the light intensity information generated by the light detection module 16 further includes a fifth intensity signal S5 relating to a fifth wavelength light and a sixth intensity signal S6 relating to a sixth wavelength light. A wavelength of the fifth wavelength light is shorter than the wavelength of the first wavelength light, and the wavelength of the sixth wavelength light is longer than the wavelength of the fourth wavelength light.
In the present embodiment, when the processor unit 13 determines whether the absorption spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum according to the light intensity information, the processor unit 13 further determines whether the fifth intensity signal S5 is larger than the first intensity signal S1. Furthermore, the processor unit 13 determines that the spectrum of the analyte solution matches the target spectrum when the light intensity information also meets the following condition: the fifth intensity signal S5, the first intensity signal S1, the second intensity signal S2, the third intensity signal S3, and the fourth intensity signal S4 are larger than the sixth intensity signal S6 (S3042).
With reference to
In an embodiment of the present invention, the wavelength of the fifth wavelength light is 450 nm, and the wavelength of the sixth wavelength light is 600 nm.
Therefore, in the present embodiment, the light detection module 16 further generates the fifth intensity signal S5 relating to the 450 nm wavelength and the sixth intensity signal S6 relating to the 600 nm wavelength light in the second light beam L2. The light detection module 16 collects two more intensity signals relating to two more feature points in the target spectrum, so that the processor unit 13 has more detailed conditions to determine whether to generate a positive result information, thus improving the accuracy of the processor unit 13.
With reference to
With reference to
In the present embodiment, the light detection module 16 further collects the fifth wavelength light with wavelength of 450 nm and the sixth wavelength light with wavelength of 600 nm, generating six light intensity signals in total. The two additional feature points according to the target spectrum further improve the accuracy of the test results.
Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
