Abstract: An apparatus for diluting a solution comprises a preparation vessel for mixing a solution with a diluent to dilute the solution, a solution supply unit, a diluent supply unit, and a controller. The controller controls the solution supply unit and the diluent supply units to supply the solution and diluent into the preparation vessel in such quantity that the concentration of the diluted solution is higher than a desired concentration. The controller also calculates an additional quantity of the diluent necessary for diluting the solution in the preparation vessel to the desired concentration based on a difference between the concentration of the solution in the preparation vessel and the desired concentration, and controls the diluent supply unit to add the diluent into the preparation vessel in smaller quantity than the calculated additional quantity and repeats the calculation and addition until the solution concentration in the preparation vessel reaches the desired concentration.

Abstract: A non-invasive blood analyzer is intended to capture images of a prescribed volume of blood in a blood vessel in a non-invasive manner and with a good contrast without collecting blood from a living body. The non-invasive blood analyzer includes a light application device for illuminating a detection region of vessels contained in a part of a living body, an image capturing device for capturing images of the detection region illuminated by the light application device, and an analyzer for analyzing blood components contained in the detection region by processing the images captured by the image capturing device. The image capturing device includes an object lens for converging the reflected light from the detection region. The light application device illuminates the detection region at an incident angle larger than an aperture angle of the object lens with respect to the detection region to provide dark-field illumination.

Abstract: An automatic sample preparing apparatus which can automatically perform all the steps of a sample preparation process from smearing of sample onto a slide glass to dyeing the smeared sample and with which there is no wasting of dyeing liquid even when only a small number of samples are to be dyed and the degree of freedom of slide glass handling and control is high. The apparatus can include a smearing part, cassettes, a carrying part, a loading part, a dyeing part and a storing part. The smearing part functions to smear samples onto slide glasses. Each cassette has a holding part which can hold slide glasses and a liquid and a pair of hanging support parts connected to this holding part. The carrying part carries the cassettes. The loading part loads the slide glasses one by one into the cassettes. The dyeing part performs dyeing of the smeared sample on the slide glasses. The storing part stores cassettes containing slide glasses with sample smeared thereon and dyed.

Abstract: A non-invasive blood analyzer contains a light applicator for illuminating a detection region under the skin of a living body including a blood vessel; a camera for capturing an image of the illuminated detection region; an analyzer for processing the captured image and analyzing at least a component of blood in the blood vessel; a transparent plate; and a support for supporting the transparent plate and contacting the transparent plate closely with the skin over the detection region. The light applicator and the camera are constructed to illuminate the detection region and capture the image of the detection region through the transparent plate. Further, a drive controller is included for driving the support to move the transparent plate contacted closely with the skin in order to adjust the detection region to thereby compensate for any change in position of the blood vessel.

Abstract: A sample apparatus includes a sampling valve having a sample inlet through which a sample such as urine is introduced from the outside of the sampling valve to the inside thereof; a sample outlet through which the sample is sent from the inside of the sampling valve to the outside thereof; and a sampling passage for setting apart a predetermined amount of the sample between the sample inlet and sample outlet. It further includes a first electrode section located close to the sample inlet so that the sample can come into contact with the first electrode section, a second electrode section located close to the sample outlet so that the sample can come into contact with the second electrode section, and a sensor circuit for measuring the impedance between the first and second electrode sections and for using the measured impedance to determine whether or not the sampling passage contains a predetermined amount of the sample.

Abstract: An analyzer for analyzing urine material components is provided, which comprises: a sheath flow cell for forming a sample stream by surrounding a sample liquid containing preliminarily stained particles of the urine material components with a sheath fluid; a light source for illuminating the sample stream; a photodetecter section for detecting optical information from the illuminated material component particles; and an analyzing section for analyzing the material components on the basis of the detected optical information; the analyzing section including a parameter extracting section for extracting a fluorescent light emission duration Flw and a scatter light emission duration Fscw as parameters from the detected optical information, a distribution diagram generating section for generating an Fscw-Flw scattergram, and a judging section for judging whether or not a material component particle being analyzed is a cast, on the basis of location of a data point of the material component particle in the generate

Abstract: An analyzer for analyzing urine material components includes: a sheath flow cell for forming a sample stream containing the urine material components; a light source for illuminating the sample stream; a section for detecting optical information from the illuminated material component particles; and an analyzing section for analyzing the material components; the analyzing section including a parameter extracting section for extracting parameters from the detected optical information, a section for generating a distribution diagram for the material components on the basis of the extracted parameters, a section for inputting an expectative domain of a particular material component in the distribution diagram, and a warning section for giving a warning when a cluster of data points of the particular material component deviates from the expectative domain by more than a predetermined degree.

Abstract: A light receiving optical system and a particle analyzer including the same which can be miniaturized and simplified are provided. The light receiving optical system includes a light receiving lens provided integrally with a light selector for selecting and outputting light by attenuating part of the light incident on the light receiving lens.

Abstract: A sample sucking device, capable of preventing possible malfunction in the automatic sucking operation and protecting against possible risks in the manual sucking operation, which comprises a pipette, an arm, an arm holder, a coiled spring, an up-and-down moving mechanism, a back-and-forth moving mechanism, a first sensor, a second sensor, and a control section. When an abnormal external force exceeding a small preset value is exerted on the pipette or the arm, the arm is forced to pivot at a rotation angle exceeding a preset rotation angle to thereby turn the first sensor OFF. When an external force exceeding a large preset value is exerted on the pipette or the arm, the arm is forced to pivot at a larger rotation angle exceeding the preset rotation angle to thereby turn the second sensor ON. Then, the control section receives an abnormality detection signal from either of the sensors to issue a moving action stop command to the up-and-down moving mechanism or the back-and-forth moving mechanism.

Abstract: An apparatus for analyzing blood includes an image capturing device for capturing an image including at least one object blood cell and an analyzer for analyzing the captured image as an image F(x, y) in an x-y coordinate system. The analyzer includes an edge calculator for calculating an edge intensity distribution E(x, y) representing an outline of the image F(x, y); a weight memory for storing in advance a weight distribution W(i, j) corresponding to an average outline of the object cell; an assessment value calculator for obtaining an assessment value C (x, y) at each point (x, y) by calculating a degree of correspondence between the edge intensity distribution E (x, y) and the weight distribution W(i, j) for each point (x, y); and an extractor for extracting a point (x, y) at which the assessment value C(x, y) is larger than a predetermined value, thereby determining that the object blood cell is present at the point (x, y). The apparatus is useful as a device for identifying the object blood cell.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for analyzing particles includes a distribution data preparation device for measuring parameters that characterize particles contained in a specimen and for preparing a distribution data of the particles in a coordinate space based on the parameters, a judgement region storage device for storing in advance a predetermined judgement region in the coordinate space, a base point extraction device for extracting, when the distribution data forms at least one group, a group base point that shows a position of the group, a judgement region correction device for correcting a position of the judgement region in the coordinate space by referring to each group base point extracted every time a distribution data is prepared by the distribution data preparation device, and a judgement device for judging the specimen based on the particles present within the corrected judgement region.

Abstract: A cytoanalyzer includes a flow cell for aligning cells and permitting the same to pass therethrough, a semiconductor light emitting device for emitting a laser beam to the cells passing through the flow cell, and a light-detecting device having at least two separate photosensing portions capable of sensing two types of light scattered by each of the cells. The alignment of the cytoanalyzer may be achieved by comparing intensities of light on the at least two separate photosensing portions.

Abstract: An analyzer for analyzing urine material components includes: a sheath flow cell for forming a sample stream containing the urine material components; a light source for illuminating the sample stream; a section for detecting optical information from the illuminated material component particles; and an analyzing section for analyzing the material components; the analyzing section including section for extracting parameters from the detected optical information, a section for generating first and second distribution diagrams on the basis of the extracted parameters, an inputting section for inputting a domain in the first distribution diagrams, a domain determining section for clustering the material component particles according to the kind of material component to define a domain for each of the material components in at least one of the first and second distribution diagrams, and a section for computing the number of data points of material component particles simultaneously belonging to a domain in the fir

Abstract: An apparatus for measuring a concentration of hemoglobin includes a light application device for applying light to a detection region containing a blood vessel present in a living body; an image capturing device for capturing an image of the detection region to which the light is applied; and an analyzer for analyzing the concentration of hemoglobin in blood flowing through the blood vessel by processing the captured image. The analyzer includes a light intensity detector for detecting a light intensity of a body tissue and a light intensity of blood using the captured image. It further includes a calculator for calculating the concentration of hemoglobin from a ratio of the light intensity of the body tissue relative to the light intensity of blood thus detected.

Abstract: An apparatus for analyzing particle images includes a sheath flow cell for transforming a particle suspension flow into a flat flow surrounded by a sheath liquid, a light source for irradiating particles in the transformed particle suspension flow, a video camera for capturing particle images of irradiated particles, an image analyzer for analyzing the captured particle images, and a display device.

Abstract: A particle analyzer includes a flow cell including first and second cells for containing an electrolyte with various types of biological particles floating therein. The first and second cells are connected to each other by a pore to allow the particles to flow from the first cell to the second cell through the pore. A first and a second electrode are provided in the electrolyte in the first and second cells respectively. A first detector detects an electric resistance between the first and second electrodes which changes according as the particle passes through the pore to generate an electric resistance signal representative of the electric resistance. A light source emits a beam of light to the flowing particle and a second detector detects scattered light from the particle receiving the beam of light to generate a scattered light signal representative of an intensity of the scattered light. A clock device clocks a period of time during which the scattered light signal is generated.

Abstract: When a mixture of different kinds of particles, such as blood, is passed through a particle detector such as a flow cytometer to measure various characteristics of each particle and the measurements of two characteristics are plotted oh a two-dimensional rectangular co-ordinate, for example, the resultant dots tend to part into groups (clusters) corresponding to the kinds of the particles. This invention relates to a method and a device for presuming informations of the position of center of gravity, variances, number of dots and likes of each cluster by learning and, based upon these informations, presuming a specific cluster or category to which each measured particle should belong from the corresponding measurements of the particle, and it intends to execute such information processing by a fuzzy clustering technique using a neural network.

Abstract: A specimen stirring device has a stirring impeller on a rotating shaft enclosed in a pipe having one or more side holes in a central portion thereof and a nozzle portion at its end and by rotation of the stirring impeller can create a circulating flow of specimen liquid flowing out of the pipe through the nozzle portion, upward along the outside of the pipe and back into the pipe through the side holes and thereby efficiently stir a specimen liquid in a specimen container even if the specimen container is long and slender or has a tapered bottom and without there being a possibility of the stirring impeller and the specimen container making contact with and damaging each other. A specimen sampling apparatus including this specimen stirring device is also disclosed.

Abstract: A reagent for analyzing cells in urine and a method for analyzing cells in urine with the use of the reagent are provided. The present invention discloses a reagent for analyzing cells in urine which comprises solution(s) containing a fluorescent dye, an osmolarity compensating agent and a buffer, as well as a method for analyzing cells in urine which comprises diluting a urine sample and staining cells therein with the reagent, irradiating the cells with light in the violet or blue wavelength region by using a flow cytometer and measuring the forward or side scattered light and fluorescence from the cells.

Abstract: An apparatus for imaging and analyzing particle components in a sample liquid flow containing particle components such as blood and urine, or fine particles of organic high polymer in suspension or the like. A conventional particle imaging flow cytometer is combined with a light source such as a lamp with small coherence, and an image intensifier with gate function of high response, so that a clear particle image without a deflection or interference fringe is obtained. Thus, in the apparatus having the still imaging function, by using the image intensifier with a high speed gate function, even with a light source of a long luminous time such as a lamp, a clear still image of a particle flowing at high speed is obtained.