Automatic analyzer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9400247-B2
Application number	US-201314379356-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 12, 2013
Priority date	Feb 24, 2012
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

Abstract

An automatic analyzer has a multi-wavelength light source that irradiates a reaction cuvette containing a liquid mixture of a sample to be analyzed and a reagent. A transmitted-light quantity detector detects the amount of light transmitted through the reaction cuvette and internal contents of the reaction cuvette. A single-wavelength light source irradiates the reaction cuvette with single-wavelength light; and a transmitted-light quantity detector detects the amount of single-wavelength light scattered from the reaction cuvette. A memory stores the results of the transmitted-light quantity detection and the scattered-light quantity detection; and the deterioration states of the single-wavelength light source, multi-wavelength light source, and reaction cuvette are determined in accordance with measurement results of cell blank measurements conducted on the reaction cuvette where a predetermined reference solution is stored to detect the amount of light transmitted through and the amount of light scattered from.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An automatic analyzer comprising:
a multi-wavelength light source that irradiates with multi-wavelength light a reaction cuvette containing a liquid mixture of a sample to be analyzed and a reagent;
transmitted-light quantity detection means that detects an amount of light transmitted through the reaction cuvette and internal contents of the reaction cuvette;
a single-wavelength light source that irradiates the reaction cuvette with single-wavelength light;
scattered-light quantity detection means that detects an amount of single-wavelength light scattered from the reaction cuvette and the internal contents of the reaction cuvette;
a storage unit that stores a result of the transmitted-light quantity detection with the transmitted-light quantity detection means and a result of the scattered-light quantity detection with the scattered-light quantity detection means; and
a determining unit that performs a deterioration determining process to determine deterioration states of the single-wavelength light source, multi-wavelength light source, and reaction cuvette in accordance with measurement results of cell blank measurements conducted on the reaction cuvette where a predetermined reference solution is stored to detect an amount of light transmitted through and an amount of light scattered from.

2. The automatic analyzer according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an arithmetic unit that computes differences between a first measurement result and a second measurement result of cell blank measurements,
wherein the first measurement result is from a cell blank measurement conducted at predefined reference points in time that are earlier than when cell blank measurements intended for the deterioration determining process are conducted, the first measurement result being stored in the storage unit,
wherein the second measurement result is from a cell blank measurement intended for the deterioration determining process, and
wherein the determining unit performs the deterioration determining process on a basis of a computation result by the arithmetic unit.

3. The automatic analyzer according to claim 2 ,
wherein if deterioration of the reaction cuvette is determined to have begun during the deterioration determining process, the determining unit issues a cell check alarm signal to inform an operator that an error relating to the reaction cuvette has occurred.

4. The automatic analyzer according to claim 2 ,
wherein if deterioration of the single-wavelength light source is determined to have begun during the deterioration determining process, the determining unit issues a single-wavelength light source check alarm signal to inform the operator that an error relating to the single-wavelength light source has occurred.

5. The automatic analyzer according to claim 2 ,
wherein if deterioration of the multi-wavelength light source is determined to have begun during the deterioration determining process, the determining unit issues a multi-wavelength light source check alarm signal to inform the operator that an error relating to the multi-wavelength light source has occurred.

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• Yamashita Kotaro
• Iijima Masahiko

Classifications

• G01N2021/825

  Agglutination · CPC title

• G01N2021/513

  Cuvettes for scattering measurements · CPC title

• G01N2021/0389

  Windows · CPC title

• G01N35/00

  Automatic analysis not limited to methods or materials provided for in any single one of groups G01N1/00 - G01N33/00; Handling materials therefor · CPC title

• G01N33/49

  Blood {(chemical methods for determining blood cell populations G01N33/5094; chemical analysis of blood groups or blood types G01N33/80)} · CPC title