Apparatus for obtaining an image of a blood cell and method for obtaining an image of a blood cell

• US 7,796,797 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2006
• Issued: 09/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sysmex Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sysmex Corporation
• Inventors: Nakaya, Masanori, Tohma, Ryuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Tabatabai; Abolfazl
• Application Number:
  US11/528,757
• Publication Number:
  US 20070076190A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,447 Days
• Field of Search: 382/128, 382/129, 382/130, 382/131, 382/132, 382/133, 382/134, 424/1.17, 424/529, 424/569, 435/70.4, 435/355, 435/372, 436/520, 436/521, 436/522, 356/39, 600/454, 600/465, 600/468, 600/480, 600/500, 702/21
• US Class Current: 382/134
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/1433 using image recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/147 the analysis being performed on a sample stream
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2015/1486 Counting the particles

Abstract

A apparatus for obtaining an image of a blood cell is described, a representative one of which includes image obtainer for obtaining an image of a predetermined blood cell in a blood sample smeared on a sample holder; an analysis result obtainer for obtaining an analysis result of the blood sample; and a controller for controlling the image obtainer such that the image obtainer obtains the image under a first imaging condition when the analysis result does not indicate a presence of a predetermined anomalous cell, and obtains the image under a second imaging condition to be different from the first imaging condition when the analysis result indicates the presence of the predetermined anomalous cell.

Claims

1. An apparatus for obtaining images of a blood cells, comprising:

an image obtainer for obtaining images of predetermined blood cells in a blood sample smeared on a sample holder;

an analysis result obtainer for obtaining an analysis result of the blood sample, wherein the analysis result has been obtained by a blood analyzer which has analyzed blood cells in the blood sample; and

a controller for controlling the image obtainer such that the image obtainer obtains the images under a first imaging condition when the obtained analysis result does not include abnormal cell information that indicates a presence of an anomalous nucleated blood cell, and obtains the images under a second imaging condition to be different from the first imaging condition when the obtained analysis result includes the abnormal cell information.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a detector for detecting a nucleated blood cells as the predetermined blood cells, wherein the image obtainer obtains the image of the predetermined blood cells detected by the detector.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the anomalous nucleated blood cell is selected from the group consisting of an immature leukocyte, an atypical lymphocytes, a nucleated red blood cell ,and combinations of thereof.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first imaging condition relates to a first number of images, the second imaging condition relates to a second number of images, the second number of images is larger than the first number.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller judges whether the anomalous nucleated blood cell is present in the images obtained by the image obtainer.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein, under the second imaging condition, the controller controls the image obtainer such that the image obtainer stops obtaining a next image, when the anomalous nucleated blood cell is present in the images obtained by the image obtainer.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, under the second imaging condition, the controller controls the image obtainer such that the image obtainer stops obtaining a next image, when a predetermined number of the predetermined blood cells are obtained by the image obtainer.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the first imaging condition relates to a first number of images, and the predetermined number is larger than the first number.

9. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the anomalous nucleated blood cell is selected from the group consisting of an immature leukocyte, an atypical lymphocyte, a nucleated red blood cell, and combinations of thereof.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the analysis result obtainer obtains the analysis result from the blood analyzer.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sample holder comprises an identification part which identifies the blood sample and indicates the analysis result of the blood sample.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the identification part comprises a two-dimensional code.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined blood cells includes white blood cells.

14. An apparatus for obtaining images of blood cells, comprising:

an image obtainer for obtaining images of predetermined blood cells in a blood sample smeared on a sample holder;

an analysis result obtainer for obtaining an analysis result of the blood sample, wherein the analysis result has been obtained by a blood analyzer which has analyzed blood cells in the blood sample; and

a controller for controlling the image obtainer such that the image obtainer obtains the images under a first imaging condition when the obtained analysis result does not include abnormal cell information that indicates a presence of aggregated platelets, and obtains the images under a second imaging condition to be different from the first imaging condition when the obtained analysis result includes the abnormal cell information,

wherein the first imaging condition relates to a first position on the sample holder for obtaining the images, the second imaging condition relates to a second position on the sample holder for obtaining the images; and

wherein the second position has higher probability of presence of the aggregated platelets than the first position.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the first position is a center or adjacent to the center of the blood sample on the holder, the second is a margin part of the blood sample on the holder.

16. A method for obtaining images of blood cells comprising:

obtaining a blood analysis result of a blood sample, wherein the analysis result has been obtained by a blood analyzer which has analyzed blood cells in the blood sample; and

obtaining images of a predetermined blood cells in a blood sample smeared on a sample holder under a first imaging condition or a second imaging condition to be different from the first imaging condition;

wherein the images are obtained under the first imaging condition when the obtained analysis result does not include abnormal cell information that indicates a presence of an anomalous nucleated blood cell, and obtained under the second imaging condition when the obtained analysis result includes the abnormal cell information.

17. An apparatus for obtaining images of blood cells comprising:

an image obtainer for obtaining images of predetermined blood cells in a blood sample smeared on a sample holder;

an analysis result obtainer for obtaining a blood analysis result of the blood sample, wherein the analysis result has been obtained by a blood analyzer which has analyzed blood cells in the blood sample; and

a controller for controlling the image obtainer such that the image obtainer obtains a first number of the images under a first imaging condition when a number of the predetermined blood cells included in the analysis result is larger than a predetermined value, and obtains a second number of the images under a second imaging condition, wherein the second number is smaller than the first number, when the number of the predetermined blood cells is smaller than the predetermined value.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the predetermined blood cells includes white blood cells.

19. An apparatus for obtaining images of blood cells comprising:

an image obtainer for obtaining a images of predetermined blood cells in a blood sample smeared on a sample holder;

an analysis result obtainer for obtaining a blood analysis result of the blood sample, wherein the analysis result includes a number of red blood cells and has been obtained by a blood analyzer which has analyzed blood cells in the blood sample; and

a controller for controlling the image obtainer such that the image obtainer obtains images of the predetermined blood cells under a first imaging condition when the number of the red blood cells included in the analysis result is larger than a predetermined value and the image obtainer does not obtain images of the predetermined blood cells under a second imaging condition when the number of the red blood cells is not larger than the predetermined value.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the predetermined blood cells includes white blood cells.