Sysmex Corporation

Yasuhiro Sakai

Yasuyuki Kawashima

Yoshiro Ikeuchi

Junya Inoue

Kinya Uchihashi

Yusuke Mori

Hiroaki Tobimatsu

Takeo Saitou

Takanori Maekawa

Tomoko Ohyama

Disclosed is a specimen pretreatment apparatus comprising: a specimen container holder configured to hold a specimen container for containing a plasma specimen; a reagent container holder configured to hold a first reagent container for containing a first reagent including magnetic particles on which a nucleic acid in the plasma specimen is adsorbed; a reaction unit in which a plurality of reaction containers are disposed, the reaction unit being configured to accelerate, in each reaction container, reaction of the plasma specimen and the first reagent; a washing unit in which a washing container is disposed, the washing unit including a magnetic force applying portion configured to apply magnetic force to the washing container; a dispensing unit; and a controller programmed to control the dispensing unit to: dispense the plasma specimen contained in the specimen container and the first reagent into the plurality of reaction containers in the reaction unit; dispense a mix liquid of the plasma specimen and the first reagent from each of the plurality of reaction containers into the washing container; and remove a liquid component from the washing container while the magnetic particles contained in the discharged mix liquid is attracted by the magnetic force applying portion.

Specimen pretreatment apparatus, specimen pretreatment cartridge, and specimen pretreatment method

The invention provides a reagent for diluting a blood sample, comprising water, polyoxyethylene alkyl ether having a hydroxyl value of 52 to 60, and an osmo-regulator for regulating the osmotic pressure of the reagent in the range of 150 to 400 mOsm/kg, as well as a method for measuring the mean corpuscular volume of a blood sample.

Reagent for diluting blood sample and method for measuring mean corpuscular volume by using the same

A method of staining bacteria comprises: working a polymethine dye on a sample in the presence of a substance capable of reducing nitrite ions to stain bacteria in the sample. A method of detecting bacteria comprises the following steps of: (1) working a polymethine dye on a sample by a method as described above to stain bacteria in the sample, (2) introducing the thus treated sample into a detecting part of a flow cytometer and irradiating cells of the stained bacteria one by one with light to measure scattered light and fluorescent light emitted from each of the cells; and (3) discriminating the bacteria from other components in accordance with an intensity of a scattered light signal and an intensity of a fluorescent light signal or a pulse width reflecting the length of particles to count the bacteria.

Method of preparing assay sample for discriminating bacteria by flow cytometer

A method for distinguishing erythrocytes in a biological specimen, includes preparing a sample liquid so as to cause damage to a cell membrane of yeast-like fungi without hemolyzing erythrocytes in a biological specimen and to stain the yeast-like fungi with a fluorescent dye; detecting a first information and a second information from a particle in the sample liquid, wherein the first information reflects a size of the particle and the second information reflects a degree of fluorescent staining of the particle; and distinguishing the erythrocytes from the yeast-like fungi based on the first information and second information detected. An apparatus, a reagent kit and a reagent for carrying out the method are also disclosed.

Method, apparatus, reagent kit and reagent for distinguishing erythrocytes in a biological specimen

Methods for counting bacteria are described that include: (a) preparing an assay sample by staining a specimen using a fluorescent dye, thereby producing a difference in fluorescent intensity between live bacteria and dead bacteria; (b) detecting optical information from the assay sample; and (c) classifying and counting the live bacteria and the dead bacteria based on the detected optical information. Bacteria counting apparatuses and reagent kits for counting bacteria are also described.

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Kobe, Japan

Yasuhiro Sakai