METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ESTIMATING FEATURES OF TARGET MATERIALS BY USING KINETIC CHANGE INFORMATION

• US 20100292932A1
• Filed: 01/21/2009
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industry Foundation Of Chonnam National University (Chonnam National University)
• Original Assignee: Industry Foundation Of Chonnam National University (Chonnam National University)
• Inventors: WON, YONG GWAN
• Granted Patent: US 8,725,427 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/19
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/3274 Corrective measures, e.g. error detection, compensation for temperature or hematocrit, calibration coding of calibration information G01N33/48771
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/5302 Apparatus specially adapted for immunological test procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/66 involving blood sugars, e.g. galactose
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/86 involving blood coagulating time or factors, or their receptors
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 436/144444 Glucose

Abstract

Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for estimating the features (concentration, weight, volume, etc.) of target materials, by using kinetic change information along time, when measuring the results of a chemical reaction between two materials, target materials and reactant, with an optical or electrochemical method. More precisely, the disclosed method and apparatus obtain in advance the correlation between accurate feature values of the target materials measured by a reference equipment and the kinetic change information related to the feature values of the target materials which is varying along the passage of time and indicates the results of chemical reaction measured by an optical or electrochemical method, and then estimates the feature values of the new samples using the correlation and the kinetic change information obtained from the new sample. In addition, the invention relates to a method and an apparatus for correcting errors by using kinetic change information of target materials, more particularly to a method and an apparatus for correcting the feature values of the first material by using the kinetic change information for the features (concentration, amount, etc.) of the first material, a correlation between the kinetic change information and the features of the second material, and a correlation between measurement errors of the features of the second material and the features of the first material.

Claims

1. A method of estimating feature values of a measurement target material using kinetic change information, comprising:

acquiring kinetic change information related to feature values of a measurement target material; and

estimating the feature values of the measurement target material using both the kinetic change information and a previously determined correlation function,

wherein the kinetic change information denotes a change in the feature values of the measurement target material over time.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the correlation function denotes a correlation between true measured values of the measurement target material and the kinetic change information, the true measured values of the measurement target material being obtained from a large number of samples in an environment in which interference is eliminated.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the correlation function minimizes an average error (E_g) defined in the following Equation 1:

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the measurement target material is glucose (blood sugar) in blood.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein each of the feature values is concentration and the kinetic change information is information in which a measured value of the glucose concentration changes over time.

10. A computer-readable recording medium for storing a computer program for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

6. An apparatus for estimating feature values of a measurement target material using kinetic change information, comprising:

a kinetic information acquisition unit for acquiring kinetic change information related to feature values of a measurement target material; and

a feature estimation unit for estimating the feature values of the measurement target material using both the kinetic change information and a previously determined correlation function.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the correlation function denotes a correlation between true measured values of the measurement target material and the kinetic change information.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the measurement target material is glucose (blood sugar) in blood.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein each of the feature values is concentration and the kinetic change information is information in which a measured value of the glucose concentration changes over time.

11. An error correction method using kinetic change information, comprising:

acquiring kinetic change information related to feature values of a first material;

estimating feature values of a second material using both the kinetic change information and a previously determined first function;

acquiring estimated errors of the feature values of the first material using both the feature values of the second material and a previously determined second function; and

correcting the feature values of the first material measured without considering interference of the second material, by using the estimated errors of the first material,

wherein the kinetic change information denotes a change in the feature values of a measurement target material over time.

12. The error correlation method according to claim 11, wherein the first function denotes a correlation between the feature values of the second material and the kinetic change information.

13. The error correlation method according to claim 12, wherein the first function minimizes a value (E_g) defined in the following Equation 3:

14. The error correction method according to claim 11, wherein the second function denotes a correlation between the feature values of the second material and measurement errors of the first material.

15. The error correction method according to claim 14, wherein the second function minimizes a value (E_f) defined in the following Equation 4,

16. The error correction method according to any one of claims 11 to 15, wherein the first material is glucose (blood sugar) in blood, and the second material is a red blood cell(hematocrit) in blood.

17. The error correction method according to claim 16, wherein each of the feature values is concentration and the kinetic change information is information in which a measured value of the glucose concentration changes over time.

23. A computer-readable recording medium for storing a computer program for implementing the method according to any one of claims 11 to 17.

18. An error correction apparatus, comprising:

a kinetic information acquisition unit for acquiring kinetic change information related to feature values of a first material;

a feature estimation unit for estimating feature values of a second material using both the kinetic change information and a previously determined first function;

an estimated error acquisition unit for acquiring estimated errors of the feature values of the first material using both the feature values of the second material and a previously determined second function; and

a feature correction unit for correcting the feature values of the first material measured without considering interference of the second material, by using the estimated errors of the first material.

19. The error correction apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the first function denotes a correlation between the feature values of the second material and the kinetic change information.

20. The error correction apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the second function denotes a correlation between the feature values of the second material and measurement errors of the first material.

21. The error correction apparatus according to any one of claims 18 to 20, wherein the first material is glucose (blood sugar) in blood, and the second material is a red blood cell (hematocrit) in blood.

22. The error correction apparatus according to claim 21, wherein each of the feature values is concentration and the kinetic change information is information in which a measured value of the glucose concentration changes over time.