MEASURING SYSTEM

• US 20130010108A1
• Filed: 12/28/2010
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, Shimadzu Corporation
• Original Assignee: National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Shimadzu Corporation
• Inventors: Kitamura, Keishi, Tsuda, Tomoaki, Hashizume, Nobuya, Nishimoto, Takahiro, Kimura, Yuichi, Seki, Chie, Kanno, Iwao
• Granted Patent: US 9,498,154 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/142
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1427 Multiple blood sampling, e.g. at periodic or pre-established intervals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/15003 for venous or arterial blood
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150213 Venting means
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150221 Valves
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150755 Blood sample preparation for further analysis, e.g. by separating blood components or by mixing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/153 Devices specially adapted for taking samples of venous or arterial blood, e.g. with syringes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/155 Devices specially adapted for continuous or multiple sampling, e.g. at predetermined intervals devices loaded with multiple lancets simultaneously A61B5/15146
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/157 Devices characterised by integrated means for measuring characteristics of blood
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/042 by centrifuging and investigating centrifugates centrifuges per se B04B
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/05 in blood
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2015/045 by optical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/07 Centrifugal type cuvettes G01N21/09 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/6428 Measuring fluorescence of fluorescent products of reactions or of fluorochrome labelled reactive substances, e.g. measuring quenching effects, using measuring "optrodes" in vivo A61B5/00; immunoassay G01N33/53
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/491 by separating the blood components G01N15/05 takes precedence

Abstract

A boundary calculating unit is provided for determining boundaries between separated plasma and blood cell or air and plasma whose image is picked up by an image pickup unit. With such boundary calculating unit provided, the boundaries between the separated plasma and blood cell or air and plasma can be determined, and areas of the separated air, plasma, and blood cell can be determined accurately. Particularly, a straight line drawing unit is provided for drawing, on the image picked up, a plurality of straight lines parallel to grooves in a disk which performs plasma separation. The boundary calculating unit can easily determine the boundaries by determining the boundaries based on a profile of the plurality of straight lines drawn by the straight line drawing unit.

Claims

1. A measuring system for measuring light generated from a luminescent or fluorescent substance included in a liquid to be measured, or radiation included in the liquid to be measured, comprising a separating device for separating the liquid to be measured, an image pickup device for picking up an image of the liquid separated by the separating device, and a boundary calculating device for determining boundaries of the separated liquid picked up by the image pickup device, wherein the measuring system measures the light or the radiation in areas of the liquid divided by the boundary calculating device, respectively;

the separating device is a flat plate grooved in a predetermined size;

an edge enhancing device is provided for enhancing, as edges, the shading differences in the image of the separated liquid in the flat plate picked up by the image pickup device;

a flow path position extracting device is provided for extracting, based on design information on grooves having the predetermined size in the flat plate, and the flat plate, flow path positions of the grooves by adjusting pixel positions of the grooves in the image with the edges enhanced by the edge enhancing device; and

the boundary calculating device determines the boundaries based on the image in the pixel positions adjusted by the flow path position extracting device.

3. The measuring system according to claim 1, wherein the flat plate is a planar disk, and grooves are formed in the predetermined size radially of the disk.

4. The measuring system according to claim 3, comprising a rotating device disposed centrally of the disk for rotating the disk, the liquid to be measured being centrifuged using a centrifugal force of the disk generated by the rotating device.

5. The measuring system according to claim 4, wherein the liquid to be measured is blood, and plasma separation is carried out to centrifuge the blood and separate the blood into plasma and blood cell using the centrifugal force of the flat plate generated by the rotating device.

10. The measuring system according to claim 1, further comprising an edge enhancing device for enhancing, as edges, the shading differences of the image in the pixel positions adjusted by the flow path position extracting device, wherein the boundary calculating device determines as boundaries the edges enhanced by the edge enhancing device.

11. The measuring system according to claim 10, comprising a straight line drawing device for drawing a plurality of straight lines parallel to the grooves on the image with the edges enhanced by the edge enhancing device which enhances, as the edges, the shading differences of the image in the pixel positions adjusted by the flow path position extracting device, wherein the boundary calculating device determines the boundaries based on a profile of the plurality of straight lines drawn by the straight line drawing device.

12. The measuring system according to claim 10, wherein the edge enhancing device which enhances, as the edges, the shading differences of the image in the pixel positions adjusted by the flow path position extracting device is a second edge enhancing device, and further the edge enhancing device which enhances, as the edges, the shading differences in the image of the separated liquid in the flat plate picked up by the image pickup device is a first edge enhancing device, the second edge enhancing device carrying out edge enhancement after edge enhancement by the first edge enhancing device.

13. The measuring system according to claim 1, wherein the edge enhancing device carries out the edge enhancement by primary differential which determines differences between an attention pixel and its peripheral pixels.

14. The measuring system according to claim 1, wherein the edge enhancing device carries out the edge enhancement by quadratic differential which determines further differences of differences between the attention pixel and its peripheral pixels.

15. The measuring system according to claim 1, comprising a detecting device for simultaneously and two-dimensionally detecting the light or radiation included in the liquid to be measured to obtain two-dimensional image information of the light or radiation, and a superimposition processing device for carrying out a superimposition process to superimpose the image of the separated liquid in the separating device picked up by the image pickup device and a distribution image of the two-dimensional image information obtained by the detecting device, wherein, based on areas of the liquid divided by the boundary calculating device, and areas in the distribution image superimposed thereon, information on the light or radiation in these areas is obtained.

16. The measuring system according to claim 15, wherein the liquid to be measured is blood including radiation, the separating device carries out plasma separation which centrifuges and separates the blood into plasma and blood cell, and the boundary calculating device determines boundaries between plasma and blood cell, the detecting device simultaneously and two-dimensionally detects the radiation included in the blood to obtain two-dimensional image information of the radiation, the superimposition processing device carries out a superimposition process to superimpose the image resulting from the plasma separation and the distribution image of the two-dimensional image information obtained by the detecting device, and based on the plasma and blood cell divided by the boundary calculating device and the plasma and blood cell in the distribution image superimposed thereon, a radioactive concentration is determined for each of the plasma and blood cell.

17. The measuring system according to claim 15, wherein the liquid to be measured is a liquid including a fluorescent substance, the detecting device simultaneously and two-dimensionally detects light included in the liquid to obtain two-dimensional image information of the light, and based on areas of the liquid divided by the boundary calculating device and areas in the distribution image superimposed thereon, densities of the fluorescent substance in these areas are determined.

2. (canceled)

6-9. -9. (canceled)