Measurement method and measurement device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10345098-B2
Application number	US-201715697978-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 7, 2017
Priority date	Mar 10, 2015
Publication date	Jul 9, 2019
Grant date	Jul 9, 2019

Abstract

The present invention provides a measurement method, a measurement device, and a program capable of non-destructively measuring a volume of an aqueous solution of a drug in each needle-like recess of a mold with high accuracy. A measurement method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a measurement wave intensity acquisition step of acquiring, for each needle-like recess, an intensity of a measurement wave transmitted through a drug in a needle-like recess, absorbed by the drug by an amount according to a distance by which the measurement wave is transmitted through the drug, and emitted from the drug; and a volume acquisition step of acquiring a volume for each needle-like recess on the basis of the intensity of the measurement wave for each needle-like recess acquired in the measurement wave intensity acquisition step.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A measurement method of non-destructively measuring a volume of a drug filled in a needle-shaped recess of a mold in which a plurality of needle-shaped recesses that are inverted shapes of a micro-needle are formed, the measurement method comprising:
a measurement wave emission step of emitting a measurement wave toward the drug filled in the needle-shaped recess;
a measurement wave intensity measurement step of measuring, for each needle-shaped recess, an intensity of the measurement wave transmitted through the drug in the needle-shaped recess, absorbed by the drug by an amount according to a distance by which the measurement wave is transmitted through the drug, and emitted from the drug; and
a volume calculation step of calculating, by a calendar, the volume for each needle-shaped recess on the basis of the intensity of the measurement wave for each needle-shaped recess and absorbed by and transmitted through the drug measured in the measurement wave intensity measurement step.

2. The measurement method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the measurement wave intensity measurement step includes acquiring the intensity of the measurement wave in a wavelength range absorbed by the water, for each of the needle-shaped recesses, in a case where the drug contains water.

3. The measurement method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the volume calculation step includes acquiring a total volume of the volume of the drug filled in the mold from the volume of the drug of each needle-shaped recess.

4. The measurement method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an acquisition result processing step of executing at least one of a display of the acquisition result acquired in the volume calculation step and storage of the acquisition result in a storage unit.

5. The measurement method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the measurement wave intensity measurement step includes:
a first acquisition process of acquiring, for each needle-shaped recess, an intensity of the measurement wave transmitted through the drug in the needle-shaped recess and emitted from the drug;
a second acquisition process of acquiring an intensity of the measurement wave transmitted through a region different from the drug; and
a normalization process of normalizing the intensity of the measurement wave for each needle-shaped recess acquired in the first acquisition process, using the intensity of the measurement wave acquired in the second acquisition process, and
the volume calculation step includes calculating the volume for each needle-shaped recess on the basis of the intensity of the measurement wave for each needle-shaped recess subjected to the normalization process.

6. The measurement method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the volume calculation step includes calculating, for each needle-shaped recess, a distance by which the measurement wave is transmitted through the drug in the needle-shaped recess on the basis of the intensity of the measurement wave of each needle-shaped recess acquired in the measurement wave intensity measurement step, and acquiring the volume of the drug for each of the needle-shaped recesses on the basis of the acquired distance of each needle-shaped recess and a known shape of the needle-shaped recesses.

7. The measurement method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the volume calculating step includes calculating the volume of the drug of each needle-shaped recess by referring to a correspondence relationship between an intensity of the measurement wave that is acquired in advance and the volume on the basis of the intensity of the measurement wave of each needle-shaped recess acquired in the measurement wave intensity measurement step.

8. The measurement method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the measurement wave intensity measurement step includes repeatedly performing a process of acquiring, for each needle-shaped recess, the intensity of the measurement wave incident on the mold from a second surface opposite to a first surface on which the drug of the mold is filled, and emitted from the drug surface of the drug, while changing the wavelength range of the measurement wave, and
the volume calculating step includes:
a distance detection step of detecting, for each needle-shaped recess, a distance by which the measurement wave in the plurality of wavelength ranges emitted from each position of the drug surface is transmitted through the drug from the acquisition result acquired for each wavelength range in the measurement wave intensity measurement step; and
a volume calculation step of calculating the volume for each needle-shaped recess on the basis of the result of the detection of the distance detection step.

9. The measurement method according to claim 8 ,
wherein the measurement wave intensity measurement step includes:
an incidence step of causing the measurement wave to be incident on the second surface in a case where the measurement wave is light;
an arrangement step of alternately inserting and arranging a plurality of filters that limit a wavelength range of the measurement wave into and in an optical path of the measurement wave, the wavelength range limited by the plurality of filters being different;
a captured image acquisition step of acquiring, for every plurality of filters, a captured image obtained by imaging the measurement wave transmitted through any one of the plurality of filters and the drug; and
an image analysis step of analyzing the captured image for every plurality of filters acquired in the captured image acquisition step and detecting an intensity of the measurement wave for each needle-shaped recess for every plurality of wavelength ranges corresponding to the plurality of filters.

10. The measurement method according to claim 8 ,
wherein in a case where the measurement wave is a first measurement wave and a second measurement wave in different wavelength ranges, and
in a case where the intensity of the first measurement wave at each position is I λ1 , the intensity of the second measurement wave at each position is I λ2 , and a parameter affecting the intensity of the first measurement wave and the intensity of the second measurement wave is P, the distance detection step includes calculating the distance H at each position
from I λ1 , I λ2 , and P.

11. The measurement method according to claim 10 ,
wherein in a case where the drug contains water and the first measurement wave and the second measurement wave are light, the parameter P includes an optical absorption coefficient α λ1 of the water corresponding to the first measurement wave and an optical absorption coefficient α λ2 of the water corresponding to the second measurement wave, and
the distance detection step includes calculating the distance H at each position
from I λ1 , I λ2 , α λ1 , α λ2 and P.

12. The measurement method according to claim 8 ,
wherein the volume calculation step includes acquiring the volume of the drug of each needle-shaped recess by referring to a correspondence relationship between at least one of intensities of the measurement wave in the respective wavelength ranges acquired in advance and the volume on the basis of the intensity of the measurement wave of each needle-shaped recess acquired for each wavelength range in the measurement wave intensity measurement step.

13. The measurement method according to claim 8 , further comprising:
a shape detection step of detecting a shape of the drug surface of each needle-shaped recess on the basis of a detection result in the distance detection step and a known shape of the needle-shaped recess.

14. The measurement method

Assignees

• Fujifilm Corp

Inventors

• Hu Yi
• Murooka Takashi

Classifications

• A61M5/1782

  Devices aiding filling of syringes in situ (combination of a vial and a syringe for transferring or mixing their contents A61J1/2096, filling of medical containers in general B65B3/003) · CPC title

• G01B11/24

  for measuring contours or curvatures · CPC title

• G01F22/00

  Methods or apparatus for measuring volume of fluids or fluent solid material, not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• G01B11/22

  for measuring depth · CPC title

• G01F17/00

  Methods or apparatus for determining the capacity of containers or cavities, or the volume of solid bodies (measuring linear dimensions to determine volume G01B) · CPC title