Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi High-tech Corporation

Akihisa Makino

Chie Yabutani

Sakuichiro Adachi

Keiko Yoshikawa

Rei Konishi

Hajime Yamazaki

Akihiro Yasui

Masashi Akutsu

Masahiko Iijima

Manabu Ando

Hiroyuki Mishima

Masato Ishizawa

Yoshihiro Suzuki

Toshiyuki Shimamori

Naoto Suzuki

Mitsuhiro Hishinuma

Tomonori Mimura

Minoru Sano

Yuya Matsuoka

Terumi Tamura

Takeshi Yokokawa

Toshiyuki Inabe

Masaaki Hirano

Shigeki Matsubara

Tatsuya Sakai

Kyoko Yamamoto

Eiichiro Takada

Satoshi Mitsuyama

Chihiro Manri

Shinji Tarumi

Takeshi Yogi

Masafumi Shimada

Akiko Watanabe

Sumiko Murata

An object of the present invention is to provide a dispensing device capable of preventing bubbles from jumping out of a nozzle and realizing highly accurate dispensing even though the nozzle is moved at a high speed toward a liquid level and is decelerated and stopped at a high acceleration. The dispensing device according to the present invention starts suction of a liquid in a period from when a nozzle starts to be lowered toward a liquid level of the liquid to when an end portion of the nozzle comes into contact with the liquid level of the liquid and the lowering of the nozzle is stopped (see FIG.).

Dispensing device, automated analysis device, and dispensing method

Provided is an automated analysis device with which sufficient reaction process data can be acquired irrespective of the scale of the device, and with which it is possible to ensure freedom of the device configuration. An automated analysis deviceis provided with: a reaction diskwhich circumferentially accommodates a plurality of reaction vessels; a specimen dispensing mechanismwhich dispenses a specimen into the reaction vessels; a reagent dispensing mechanismwhich dispenses a reagent into the reaction vessels; a measuring unitwhich measures a reaction process of a mixture of the specimen and the reagent in the reaction vessels; and a cleaning mechanismwhich cleans the reaction vesselsafter measurement. Further, the automated analysis deviceincludes a controllerwhich controls the drive of the reaction disksuch that in one cycle the reaction vesselsmove by an amount A in the circumferential direction in such a way that N and A are mutually prime, B and C are mutually prime, and the relationship A×B=N×C±1 holds, where N is the total number of reaction vesselsaccommodated in the reaction disk, the reaction diskmoves through C (where C>1) rotations+an amount equivalent to one reaction vessel after B (where B>2) cycles, and the number of reaction vesselsmoved in one cycle is A (where N>A>N/B+1).

Automated analysis device

A high-throughput automatic analyzer integrates a biochemical analysis section and a blood coagulation analysis section. The analyzer is capable of achieving a reduction in size, system cost, and lifecycle cost. The automatic analyzer includes: a reaction disk; a first reagent dispensing mechanism that dispenses a reagent to reaction cells on the reaction disk; a photometer that irradiates a reaction solution in the reaction cell with light; a reaction cell cleaning mechanism; a reaction vessel supply unit that supplies a disposable reaction vessel for mixing and reacting a sample and a reagent with each other; a second reagent dispensing mechanism that dispenses a reagent to the disposable reaction vessel; a blood coagulation time measuring section that irradiates a reaction solution in the disposable reaction vessel with light to detect transmitted or scattered light; and a sample dispensing mechanism that dispenses a sample to the reaction cell and the disposable reaction vessel.

Automatic analyzer

The automatic analysis deviceis provided with: a specimen dispensing mechanismthat dispenses subject blood plasma and/or normal blood plasma to be added to correct the coagulation time of the subject blood plasma, into a plurality of specimen containers; reaction containersthat contain the subject blood plasma and/or the normal blood plasma; a reagent dispensing mechanismthat dispenses a reagent into the reaction containers; and a detecting unitwhich applies light from a light sourceto the subject blood plasma and/or the normal blood plasma to which the reagent is added in the reaction containers, and which measures the coagulation time on the basis of the obtained scattered light and/or transmitted light.

Automatic analysis device and automatic analysis method

Provided is an automated analysis device with which sufficient reaction process data can be acquired irrespective of the scale of the device, and with which it is possible to ensure freedom of the device configuration. An automated analysis deviceis provided with: a reaction diskwhich circumferentially accommodates a plurality of reaction vessels; a specimen dispensing mechanismwhich dispenses a specimen into the reaction vessels; a reagent dispensing mechanismwhich dispenses a reagent into the reaction vessels; a measuring unitwhich measures a reaction process of a mixture of the specimen and the reagent in the reaction vessels; and a cleaning mechanismwhich cleans the reaction vesselsafter measurement. Further, the automated analysis deviceincludes a controllerwhich controls the drive of the reaction disksuch that in one cycle the reaction vesselsmove by an amount Ain the circumferential direction in such a way that N and A are mutually prime, B and C are mutually prime, and the relationship A&#xd7;B=N&#xd7;C&#xb1;1 holds, where N is the total number of reaction vesselsaccommodated in the reaction disk, the reaction diskmoves through C (where C&#x3e;1) rotations+an amount equivalent to one reaction vessel after B (where B&#x3e;2) cycles, and the number of reaction vesselsmoved in one cycle is A (where N&#x3e;A&#x3e;N/B+1).

It is necessary to efficiently agitate a small amount of sample (such as blood) and reagent (such as diluted solution) in a short time with a dispensing probe having a constant tube inner diameter. An automatic analysis device, by a dispensing probe, executes an aspiration step of aspirating a reagent from a reagent vessel; a first dispensing and aspiration step of dispensing a first liquid amount of the aspirated reagent to a reaction vessel and aspirating, from the reaction vessel, a second liquid amount of a mixed liquid obtained by mixing the reagent and the sample in the reaction vessel; and a final dispensing step of dispensing the aspirated mixed liquid and the reagent in a predetermined dispensing amount. A first liquid amount Va is less than a predetermined dispensing amount Vdil.

Automatic analysis device

A sample dispensing mechanism configured to dispense a sample and a reagent to the reaction vessel at a first dispensing position and the reaction cell positioned at a second dispensing position; a second reagent vessel disposed on a track of the sample dispensing mechanism; and a control unit configured to control the sample dispensing mechanism, in which the control unit is configured to, based on information on presence or absence of incubation of an analysis item, control the sample dispensing mechanism to dispense a sample and a reagent to the reaction vessel positioned at the first dispensing position in a case where the incubation is not required by the analysis item, and control the sample dispensing mechanism to dispense a sample to the reaction cell positioned at the second dispensing position in a case where the incubation is required by the analysis item.

The present invention is provided with a sample rack insertion unitthat is capable of holding one or more sample rackshaving mounted therein one or more sample containersaccommodating a sample to be analyzed, one or more analysis devicesfor analyzing the sample accommodated in the sample containers, a sample rack conveyance unitfor conveying the sample racksfrom the sample rack insertion unitto the analysis devices, and a control devicefor acquiring, for each analysis device, load information that is information expressing an operating condition of the analysis device, and, if there is an analysis devicefor which the load information is larger than a predetermined conveyance permission value, carrying out control so as to stop the conveyance of the sample racksfrom the sample rack insertion unitto the analysis device(s). As a result of this configuration, it is possible to mitigate in-device sample conveyance congestion occurring as a result of the insertion of many samples and keep the sample environment and analysis processing power at high levels.

Automated analyzer

An automatic analysis device includes a reagent container, a reagent disk for holding the reagent container, a dispensing mechanism for dispensing a solution into the reagent container, an inversion mixing mechanism for subjecting the reagent container to inversion mixing, and a control unit for controlling the dispensing mechanism and the inversion mixing mechanism. The inversion mixing mechanism has a rotating mechanism for rotating the reagent container and a tilting mechanism for tilting a rotating shaft of the reagent container. The reagent container has a lid which can be pierced. The lid has a tubular mechanism having an opening part formed at the tip end and extending inside the reagent container. The control unit controls the dispensing conditions of the dispensing mechanism.

An automated analyzer is provided with one or more dispensing linesthat are each for loading and unloading, at one end thereof, a sample rackhaving placed therein one or more sample containers accommodating a sample for analysis and for conveying the sample rack back and forth from a dispensing position for dispensing the sample from the sample containers and sample rack removal partsthat are provided adjacent to the other ends of the dispensing linesand provide and receive sample racks to and from the dispensing lines. According to this configuration, it is possible to convey an urgent sample while suppressing device complexity, preventing cost from increasing, and also maintaining speed.

Provided is an automated analysis device with which sufficient reaction process data can be acquired irrespective of the scale of the device, and with which it is possible to ensure freedom of the device configuration. An automated analysis deviceis provided with: a reaction diskwhich circumferentially accommodates a plurality of reaction vessels; a specimen dispensing mechanismwhich dispenses a specimen into the reaction vessels; a reagent dispensing mechanismwhich dispenses a reagent into the reaction vessels; a measuring unitwhich measures a reaction process of a mixture of the specimen and the reagent in the reaction vessels; and a cleaning mechanismwhich cleans the reaction vesselsafter measurement. Further, the automated analysis deviceincludes a controllerwhich controls the drive of the reaction disksuch that in one cycle the reaction vesselsmove by an amount A in the circumferential direction in such a way that N and A are mutually prime, B and C are mutually prime, and the relationship A&#xd7;B=N&#xd7;C&#xb1;1 holds, where N is the total number of reaction vesselsaccommodated in the reaction disk, the reaction diskmoves through C (where C&#x3e;1) rotations+an amount equivalent to one reaction vessel after B (where B&#x3e;2) cycles, and the number of reaction vesselsmoved in one cycle is A (where N&#x3e;A&#x3e;N/B+1).

An automatic analyzer with high processing capacity is capable of immediately measuring an emergency specimen rack. The automatic analyzer includes a conveying line for conveying a specimen rack, and an analysis unit which has a dispensing line in which a plurality of specimen racks are arranged for waiting until sample dispensing, and a sampling area for dispensing the sample to the analysis unit. A rack save area is provided in the dispensing line and at a position adjacent to the upstream side of the sampling area. When a specimen rack exists in the sampling area at the time of measuring an emergency specimen rack, a controller moves the specimen rack to the save area and positions the emergency specimen rack to be moved from a downstream side of the sampling area to the sampling area.

An automated analyzer has a reaction disk on which a plurality of reaction vessels capable of holding sample and reagent mixtures can be placed, a first cover for covering at least a portion of the area above the reaction disk, a second cover that can be opened and closed independently from the first cover, at least one sensor for monitoring the opening and closing of the first cover, and a control unit for monitoring a signal from the sensor and carrying out control such that if the first cover has not been opened and closed during the period until a new analysis operation is started, a pre-analysis cleaning operation, blank measurement operation, or both, are skipped.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Akihisa Makino