Clinical examination apparatus and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9528937-B2
Application number	US-72966107-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2007
Priority date	Mar 30, 2006
Publication date	Dec 27, 2016
Grant date	Dec 27, 2016

Abstract

A clinical examination apparatus is equipped with a measurement unit which measures a patient's clinical specimen, an output unit which outputs the measurement result by this measurement unit and a storage unit which stores determination criteria of the measurement result by the measurement unit according to a medical organization. Moreover, the clinical examination apparatus determines whether or not the measurement result corresponds to a predetermined state based on the measurement result by the measurement unit and the determination criteria stored in the storage unit, for each medical organization, and upon determination that the measurement result corresponds to a predetermined state, allows the output unit to output information indicating the predetermined state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A urine specimen measuring apparatus located in a medical facility, the apparatus comprising:
a suction pipe having a tip end configured to insert into a test tube containing a urine specimen obtained from a patient, wherein the suction pipe inserted into the test tube is controlled to repeatedly suction and discharge the urine specimen, thereby stirring the urine specimen in the test tube, the suction pipe is further controlled to aspirate an initial portion of the stirred urine specimen and to distribute the aspirated initial portion of the urine sample into a first aliquot and a second aliquot;
a first measurement sample preparation unit configured to contain a first measurement sample that includes a first dyeing reagent and the first aliquot and is used for counting erythrocytes;
a second measurement sample preparation unit configured to contain a second measurement sample that includes a second dyeing reagent and the second aliquot and is used for counting bacteria;
an optical detecting unit comprising a sheath flow cell configured to form a first flow of the first measurement sample and a second flow of the second measurement sample, a semiconductor laser light source configured to irradiate the first and second flows, a scattered light detector configured to detect first scattered light information from particles in the first flow and to detect second scattered light information from particles in the second flow and a fluorescence detector configured to detect first fluorescence information from the particles in the first flow and to detect second fluorescence information from the particles in the second flow;
a memory configured to store a first re-examination determination condition including gender, age range and first determination criteria of the number of erythrocytes and the number of bacteria, and a second re-examination determination condition including gender, age range and second determination criteria of the number of erythrocytes and the number of bacteria;
a specimen information acquirer configured to acquire specimen information for the urine specimen;
a receiver configured to receive patient information indicating gender and age of a patient of the urine specimen and medical specialty information identifying the first and second branch of medical science;
a display; and
a computer configured to determine whether or not a first re-examination for a first branch of medical science is required for a urine specimen, and to determine whether or not a second re-examination for a second branch of medical science is required for the urine specimen by performing operations comprising:
acquiring the specimen information for the urine specimen,
receiving the patient information and the medical specialty information identifying at least one of the first and second branch of medical science on the basis of the specimen information,
preparing a measurement result including at least the number of the erythrocytes and the number of the bacteria from the detected first and second scattered light information by the scattered light detector and the detected first and second fluorescence information by the fluorescence detector;
responsive to receiving the medical specialty information of the first branch of medical science, determining whether or not the first re-examination is required by comparing the measurement result, the gender of the patient and the age of the patient to the first re-examination determination condition of the medical specialty information of the first branch of medical science;
displaying first re-examination information on the display, when the first re-examination is required, the first re-examination information indicating that the first re-examination is required;
responsive to receiving the medical specialty information of the second branch of medical science, determining whether or not the second re-examination is required by comparing the measurement result, the gender of the patient and the age of the patient to the second re-examination determination condition of the medical specialty information of the second branch of medical science; and
displaying second re-examination information on the display, when the second re-examination is required, the second re-examination information indicating that the second re-examination is required.

2. The urine specimen measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the specimen information included a specimen number.

3. The urine specimen measuring apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the memory stores a first abnormality determination condition determining whether or not the measurement result is in a first abnormal state and a second abnormality determination condition determining whether or not the measurement result is in a second abnormal state,
wherein the computer performs operations comprising:
determining whether or not the measurement result is in the first abnormal state by comparing the measurement result to the first abnormality determination condition when the acquired medical specialty information include the first branch of medical science, and displaying first abnormal information indicating that the measurement result is in the first abnormal state on the display, when the measurement result is in the first abnormal state,
wherein the computer performs operations comprising:
determining whether or not the measurement result is in the second abnormal state by comparing the measurement result to the second abnormality determination condition when the acquired medical specialty information include the second branch of medical science, and
displaying second abnormal information indicating that the measurement result is in the second abnormal state on the display unit, when the measurement result is in the second abnormal state.

4. The urine specimen measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the computer performs operations further comprising:
receiving an input of medical specialty information and re-examination determination condition, the medical specialty information specifying a medical organization; and
storing the input re-examination determination condition in the memory in association with the medical specialty information.

5. The urine specimen measuring apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the computer performs operations further comprising displaying an input screen on the display for receiving the input of the medical specialty information and the re-examination determination condition.

6. The urine specimen measuring apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the computer performs operations further comprising:
receiving an input of a name of the re-examination determination condition, and
storing the inputted name in the storage unit in association with the re-examination determination condition.

7. A urine specimen measuring apparatus located in a medical facility, the apparatus comprising:
a suction pipe having a tip end configured to insert into a test tube containing a urine specimen obtained from a patient, wherein the suction pipe inserted into the test tube is controlled to repeatedly suction and discharge the urine specimen, thereby stirring the urine specimen in the test tube, the suction pipe is further controlled to aspirate an initial portion of the stirred urine specimen and to distribute the aspirated initial portion of the urine sample into a first aliquot and a second aliquot;
a first measurement sample preparation unit that contains a first measurement sample that includes a first dyeing reagent and the first aliquot and is used for counting erythrocytes;
a second measurement sample preparation unit configured to contain a second measurement sample that includes a second dyeing reagent and th

Assignees

• Tanaka Yousuke
• Naito Takamichi
• Mizumoto Toru
• Sysmex Corp

Inventors

• Tanaka Yousuke
• Naito Takamichi
• Mizumoto Toru

Classifications

• G06F19/366

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01N35/00594

  Quality control, including calibration or testing of components of the analyser · CPC title

• G06Q50/22

  Social work or social welfare, e.g. community support activities or counselling services · CPC title

• G01N21/64 Primary

  Fluorescence; Phosphorescence · CPC title

• G16H40/63

  for local operation · CPC title