Chemistry: analytical and immunological testing – Automated chemical analysis – With conveyance of sample along a test line in a container...
Patent
1997-06-03
1999-11-16
Le, Long V.
Chemistry: analytical and immunological testing
Automated chemical analysis
With conveyance of sample along a test line in a container...
436 47, 436 48, 436174, 436177, 436180, 422 63, 422 65, 422101, 210695, 210222, G01N 3500, G01N 2176, G01N 2103, B03C 128
Patent
active
059856718
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
SPECIFICATION
The invention relates to a measuring system for performing luminometric series analyses on reaction components to be investigated and the liquid samples containing the magnetizable carrier particles binding said components, with a sample chamber that receives the liquid sample and can be transported to a measuring station on a conveyor, with a permanent magnet that acts on the sample chamber with its magnetic field during transport, as well as a separating station preferably equipped with a suction and rinsing device to remove the surplus reaction components separated from the carrier particles that accumulate on a wall area of the sample chamber under the influence of the magnetic field.
The invention also relates to a method for luminometric series analyses in which a sample chamber, filled with a liquid sample containing reaction components to be investigated and the carrier particles that are magnetizable and bind the latter, is transported on a conveyor to a luminescence measuring station with the carrier particles being accumulated during the course of transport in a collecting area of the sample chamber wall during a separating phase under the influence of a magnetic field and with surplus reaction components being removed from the sample chamber in a washing process that follows the separating phase.
Measuring techniques of this kind serve primarily in medical diagnosis, food-chemistry analysis, biotechnology, and environmental technology for specific and quantitative determination of very small amounts of biomolecules and toxins, with a large number of samples frequently having to be processed. For measurement, the target substances contained in a sample liquid are labeled in an immunochemical reaction with a specific antibody bearing a marker (luminogen) capable of luminescence. For concentration with chemical and physical agents, the target structure thus obtained is additionally coupled with a magnetic particle coated with specific antibodies and separated as quantitatively as possible from the liquid component under the influence of a magnetic field. This component can then be removed by suction or decanting. The measuring process itself takes place following the addition of a starting reagent that excites the luminogen and causes it to glow. The fluorescence photons then emitted are collected by a photodetector designed as a photomultiplier which "looks at" the sample volume in a darkened measuring station and produces a recording in the form of counting pulses. On the basis of the total photon yield determined in the form of integrated counting pulses, the concentration of the target substance is finally determined by a calibration relationship.
A device of the species recited at the outset is known (DE 39 26 462 A1) in which a large number of samples is fed in individual test tubes on a conveyor to a separating station. During transport, permanent magnets are introduced cyclically into the conveyor and carried along with the associated test tubes through a section of the conveyor. All of the permanent magnets in this conveyor section are aligned in the same way and cause the solid magnetic particles to accumulate at a specific point on the inside wall of each test tube. Although it is possible to use this device to permit the separating and washing procedures as well as the subsequent measurement process to take place fully automatically, the entire structure of this system is mechanically complex and requires a high operating cost due to the handling of a large number of individual tubes. In particular, however, it has been found that when the magnetic particles accumulate on the walls of the test tubes, they have a tendency to clump and to trap free luminogens because of their coating that bears the antibodies. During luminescence measurement, these luminogens then generate a certain amount of background noise from which the light signals from the target substances can no longer be distinguished below a resultant limiting concentration for detection.
Therefore the goal of t
REFERENCES:
patent: 3645506 (1972-02-01), Selesnick
patent: 5147529 (1992-09-01), Lee et al.
patent: 5599501 (1997-02-01), Carey et al.
patent: 5705062 (1998-01-01), Knobel
Leistner Hermann
Schiessl Hans
Le Long V.
Stratec Elektronik GmbH
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