Automated method and apparatus for classification of cells with application to the diagnosis of anemia
First Claim
1. A method of automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood for an anemia or other red blood cell disorder comprising the steps of:
- examining the red blood cells in patient'"'"'s blood sample, measuring characteristics of blood cells and classifying normal and abnormal cells into a plurality of mutually exclusive subpopulations, determining parameters for the red blood cells in respective ones of said subpopulations, and comparing parameters of respective ones of the patient'"'"'s red blood cell subpopulations with predetermined reference characteristic values of red blood cell subpopulations from a person having a known kind of anemia or other red blood cell disorder,and reporting the results of the comparison to provide an indication of a specific anemia or red blood cell disorder or the lack thereof.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for measuring characteristics of cells, such as red blood cells, and for analyzing parameters of the cell characteristics to define a patient'"'"'s blood. These parameters may be compared for resemblance to predetermined reference characteristic values for a blood cell pathological condition such as a specific kind of anemia or for a normal blood. A report may be generated showing such resemblance to an anemia or to a normal blood. A report may be generated showing parameters of a multivariate dispersion of distribution for a subpopulation of biconcave cells, an indication of skewness of the distribution of the cells with regard to shape variations in central pallor size; the proportion of abnormal kinds of cells found, and closeness of blood to several specific anemias. To expedite the system, a plurality of microprocessors are employed with one microprocessor controlling the imaging means and the summing of measured characteristics while one or more additional microprocessors are measureing characteristics and analyzing the digitized image signals. An improved method of measuring central pallor size is provided.
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Citations
99 Claims
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1. A method of automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood for an anemia or other red blood cell disorder comprising the steps of:
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examining the red blood cells in patient'"'"'s blood sample, measuring characteristics of blood cells and classifying normal and abnormal cells into a plurality of mutually exclusive subpopulations, determining parameters for the red blood cells in respective ones of said subpopulations, and comparing parameters of respective ones of the patient'"'"'s red blood cell subpopulations with predetermined reference characteristic values of red blood cell subpopulations from a person having a known kind of anemia or other red blood cell disorder, and reporting the results of the comparison to provide an indication of a specific anemia or red blood cell disorder or the lack thereof. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood comprising the steps of:
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examining the red blood cells in a patient'"'"'s blood sample, measuring characteristics of the red blood cells, determining parameters of the dispersion of the distribution of the measured characteristics of said red blood cells, and reporting on said parameters to provide a description of the blood. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood for an anemia or blood cell disorder, said method comprising the steps of:
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examining the red blood cells in a patient'"'"'s blood sample, measuring characteristics of the red blood cells, generating a plurality of measured properties from said measured characteristics to define a patient'"'"'s blood, comparing the resemblance of the patient'"'"'s blood to reference characteristic values for a specific anemia or blood cell disorder, and reporting with respect to the results of said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method of automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood comprising the steps of:
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examining the red blood cells in a patient'"'"'s blood sample; measuring characteristics of the red blood cells; classifying the cells into a plurality of mutually exclusive subpopulations including a normal and abnormal subpopulation; determining subpopulation parameters including the dispersion of the distribution of at least one of said subpopulations; and reporting on the results of the dispersion of distribution as a description of the blood. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method of automatically and rapidly analyzing cells on a support, said method comprising the steps of:
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producing an optical image on an imaging means of a field of the cells on the support; converting the image into a point by point distribution representative of the image; converting each point into a digital signal; controlling said imaging means by a first processing means so that a plurality of fields may be imaged on said imaging means; analyzing the digital signals of each field of the cells imaged by a second processing means and measuring characteristics of the digitized signals for predetermined red blood cell characteristics; and reporting parameters relating to the measured characteristics of the cells analyzed.
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32. A method of automatically and rapidly analyzing cells on a slide comprising the steps of:
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producing a first optical image on an imaging means of a field of the cells on the slide; converting the image into a point by point distribution representative of the image; converting each point into a digital signal with a digitizing means; controlling said imaging means by a first processing means so that an additional field may be imaged; analyzing the digital signals of each field of the cells imaged by a second processing means for a plurality of cell features; synchronizing the first processing means with the digitizing means so that the first processing means may cause an additional field to be imaged after the first image is digitized.
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33. A method of analyzing with apparatus including an optical imaging means controlled by a first processing means and at least one additional processing means for measuring cell characteristics, said method comprising the steps of:
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producing a first optical image on said imaging means and digitizing said image to produce digital signals under the control of said first processing means, measuring characteristics of the cells from the digitized image signals in one of said additional processing means and analyzing the measured characteristics while said first processing means is controlling the imaging means and producing another image for cell measuring and analyzing, transferring information concerning said analyzed and measured characteristic from one of said additional processing means to said first processing means for storing therein, and controlling the imaging means by said first processing means to transfer digitized image signals to one of said additional processing means. - View Dependent Claims (34)
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35. A method of automatically testing blood for abnormalities by analyzing red blood cells having quantifiable features in a blood specimen, said method comprising the steps of identifying at least one subpopulation of the red blood cells in said specimen, determining a distribution of the red blood cells for said subpopulation with respect to a plurality of the quantifiable features of the red blood cells;
- and reporting parameters relating to said distribution to provide an indication of a blood abnormality or a lack thereof.
- View Dependent Claims (36)
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37. A method for automatically testing blood for abnormalities by analyzing red blood cells having quantifiable features in a blood specimen, said method comprising the steps of identifying at least one subpopulation of the red blood cells, determining a distribution of the red blood cells of said subpopulation with respect to a plurality of the quantifiable features of the red blood cells including the size of the red blood cells and the hemoglobin content of the red blood cells, and reporting parameters relating to said distribution including the mean cell size, mean cell hemoglobin content, and the dispersion of the distribution relative to the size and hemoglobin content of the red blood cells.
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38. A method for automatically classifying blood and its relationship to recognized categories of anemia wherein a sample of red blood cells having quantifiable features is analyzed, said method comprising the steps of:
- identifying at least one defined subpopulation of red blood cells, determining the proportion of said subpopulation in said sample, and comparing said proportion to the proportion of a similarly defined subpopulation in a sample from a recognized category of anemic red blood cells.
- View Dependent Claims (39)
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40. A method for automatically classifying blood and its relationship to recognized categories of anemias wherein a sample of red blood cells having quantifiable features is analyzed, said method comprising the steps of identifying at least one defined subpopulation of red blood cells, determining a distribution of the red blood cells of the subpopulation with respect to a plurality of the quantifiable features of the red blood cells and comparing parameters of the distribution to the parameters of a distribution of a similarly defined subpopulation in a sample from a recognized category of anemic red blood cells.
- 41. A method for automatically classifying blood and its relationship to recognized categories of anemias wherein a sample of red blood cells having quantifiable features is analyzed, said method comprising determining the average of a plurality of said quantifiable features including the pallor size from said sample and comparing said averages to averages of the same quantifiable features of a sample from a recognized category of anemic red blood cells.
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43. A method for automatically identifying target cells in a sample of red blood cells comprising:
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determining a first cross-sectional profile of a red blood cell and determining a second cross-sectional profile in a direction substantially transverse to said first profile, each of said profiles relating to the thickness of the red blood cell at points along each cross section and defining relative maxima and minima; and detecting the existence of three relative maxima and two relative minima on either profile. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47)
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48. A method for determining a parameter relating to the size of the central pallor of a round red blood cell comprising:
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determining a first cross-sectional profile of the red blood cell and determining a second cross-sectional profile substantially transverse to said first profile, each of said profiles relating to the thickness or density of the red blood cell at points along each cross section and defining relative maxima of the profiles; determining the volume of a cylinder defined by the average of said maxima and the area of said round red blood cell; and determining a volume relating to the volume occupied by the red blood cell, and determining a parameter defined by the difference between the volume of said cylinder and the volume relating to the volume of the red blood cell. - View Dependent Claims (49)
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50. A method of automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood comprising the steps of:
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examining the red blood cells in patient'"'"'s blood sample, measuring a plurality of characteristics of each of the red blood cells, determining parameters of the multivariate dispersion of the distribution of the measured plurality of characteristics for said red blood cells, and reporting on said parameters to provide a description of the blood.
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51. An apparatus for automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood for an anemia or other red blood cell disorder comprising:
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means for examining the red blood cells in patient'"'"'s blood sample, means for measuring characteristics of blood cells and for classifying normal and abnormal cells into a plurality of mutually exclusive subpopulations, means for determining parameters for the red blood cells in respective ones of said subpopulations, and means comparing parameters of respective ones of the patient'"'"'s red blood cell subpopulations with predetermined reference characteristic values of red blood cell subpopulations from a person having a known kind of anemia or other red blood cell disorder, and means for reporting the results of the comparison to provide an indication of a specific anemia or red blood cell disorder or the lack thereof. - View Dependent Claims (52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
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62. An apparatus for automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood comprising
means for examining the red blood cells in a patient'"'"'s blood sample, means for measuring characteristics of the red blood cells, means for determining parameters of the dispersion of the distribution of the measured characteristics of said red blood cells, and means for reporting on said parameters to provide a description of the blood.
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69. An apparatus for automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood for an anemia or blood cell disorder, said apparatus comprising:
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means for examining the red blood cells in a patient'"'"'s blood sample, means for measuring characteristics of the red blood cells, means for generating a plurality of measured properties from said measured characteristics to define a patient'"'"'s blood, means for comparing the resemblance of the patient'"'"'s blood to reference characteristic values for a specific anemia or blood cell disorder, and means for reporting with respect to the results of said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (70, 71, 72, 73, 74)
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75. An apparatus for automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood comprising:
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means for examining the red blood cells in a patient'"'"'s blood sample; means for measuring characteristics of the red blood cells; means for classifying the cells into a plurality of mutually exclusive subpopulations including a normal and abnormal subpopulation; means for determining subpopulation parameters including the dispersion of the distribution of at least one of said subpopulations; and means for reporting on the results of the dispersion of distribution as a description of the blood. - View Dependent Claims (76, 77, 78, 79)
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80. An apparatus for automatically and rapidly analyzing cells on a support, said apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of processing means; means for producing an optical image on an imaging means of a field of the cells on the support; means for converting the image into a point by point distribution representative of the image; means for converting each point into a digital signal; means for controlling said imaging means by a first of said processing means so that a plurality of fields may be imaged on said imaging means; means for analyzing the digital signals of each field of the cells imaged by a second one of said processing means and for measuring characteristics of the digitized signals for predetermined red blood cell characteristics; and means for reporting parameters relating to the measured characteristics of the cells analyzed.
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81. An apparatus for automatically and rapidly analyzing cells on a slide comprising:
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a plurality of processing means; means for producing a first optical image on an imaging means of a field of the cells on the slide; means for converting the image into a point by point distribution representative of the image; a digitizing means for converting each point into a digital signal; means for controlling said imaging means by a first one of said processing means so that an additional field may be imaged; means for analyzing the digital signals of each field of the cells imaged by a second one of said processing means for a plurality of cell features; means for synchronizing the first processing means with said digitizing means so that said first processing means may cause an additional field to be imaged after the first image is digitized.
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82. An apparatus for automatically and rapidly analyzing red blood cells comprising:
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a first processing means and at least one additional processing means, an optical imaging means for producing a first optical image, said first processing means digitizing said image to produce digital signals under the control of said first processing means, means for measuring characteristics of the red blood cells from the digitized image signals in said additional processing means and for analyzing the measured characteristics while said first processing means is controlling the imaging means and producing another image for cell measuring and analyzing, means for transferring information concerning said analyzed and measured characteristics from additional processing means to said first processing means for storing therein, and means for controlling the imaging means by said first processing means to transfer digitized image signals to one of said additional processing means. - View Dependent Claims (83)
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84. An apparatus for automatically testing blood for abnormalities by analyzing red blood cells having quantifiable features in a blood specimen, said apparatus comprising:
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means for identifying at least one subpopulation of the red blood cells in said specimen; means for determining a distribution of the red blood cells for said subpopulation with respect to a plurality of the quantifiable features of the red blood cells; and means for reporting parameters relating to said distribution to provide an indication of a blood abnormality or a lack thereof. - View Dependent Claims (85)
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86. An apparatus for automatically testing blood for abnormalities by analyzing red blood cells having quantifiable features in a blood specimen, said apparatus comprising:
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means for identifying at least one subpopulation of the red blood cells; means for determining a distribution of the red blood cells of said subpopulation with respect to a plurality of the quantifiable features of the red blood cells including the size of the red blood cells and the hemoglobin content of the red blood cells; and means for reporting parameters relating to said distribution including the mean cell size, mean cell hemoglobin content, and the dispersion of the distribution relative to the size and hemoglobin content of the red blood cells.
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87. An apparatus for automatically classifying blood and its relationship to recognized categories of anemia wherein a sample of red blood cells having quantifiable features is analyzed, said apparatus comprising:
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means for identifying at least one defined subpopulation of red blood cells; means for determining the proportion of said subpopulation in said sample; and means for comparing said proportion to the proportion of a similarly defined subpopulation in a sample from a recognized category of anemic red blood cells. - View Dependent Claims (88)
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89. An apparatus for automatically classifying blood and its relationship to recognized categories of anemias wherein a sample of red blood cells having quantifiable features is analyzed, said apparatus comprising:
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a means for identifying at least one defined subpopulation of red blood cells;
p1 means for determining a distribution of the red blood cells of the subpopulation with respect to a plurality of the quantifiable features of the red blood cells; andmeans for comparing parameters of the distribution to the parameters of a distribution of a similarly defined subpopulation in a sample from a recognized category of anemic red blood cells.
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90. An apparatus for automatically classifying blood and its relationship to recognized categories of anemias wherein a sample of red blood cells having quantifiable features is analyzed, said apparatus comprising:
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means for determining the average of a plurality of said quantifiable features including the pallor size from said sample; and means for comparing said averages to the averages of the same quantifiable features of a sample from a recognized category of anemic red blood cells. - View Dependent Claims (91)
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92. An apparatus for automatically identifying target cells in a sample of red blood cells comprising:
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means for determining a first cross-sectional profile of a red blood cell and for determining a second cross-sectional profile in a direction substantially transverse to said first profile, each of said profiles relating to the thickness of the red blood cell at points along each cross section and defining relative maxima and minima; and means for detecting the existence of three relative maxima and two relative minima on either profile. - View Dependent Claims (93, 94, 95, 96)
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97. An apparatus for determining a parameter relating to the size of the central pallor of a round red blood cell comprising:
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means for determining a first cross-sectional profile of the red blood cell and for determining a second cross-sectional profile substantially transverse to said first profile, each of said profiles relating to the thickness or density of the red blood cell at points along each cross section and defining relative maxima of the profiles; means for determining the volume of a cylinder defined by the average of said maxima and the area of said round red blood cell; and means for determining a volume relating to the volume occupied by the red blood cell, and means for determining a parameter defined by the difference between the volume of said cylinder and the volume relating to the volume of the red blood cell. - View Dependent Claims (98)
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99. An apparatus for automatically analyzing red blood cells in a sample of a patient'"'"'s blood comprising:
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means for examining the red blood cells in patient'"'"'s blood sample; means for measuring a plurality of characteristics of each of the red blood cells; means for determining parameters of the multivariate dispersion of the distribution of the measured plurality of characteristics for said red blood cells; and means for reporting on said parameters to provide a description of the blood.
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Specification