Image analysis – Applications – Biomedical applications
Reexamination Certificate
1997-02-20
2001-11-13
Johns, Andrew W. (Department: 2621)
Image analysis
Applications
Biomedical applications
C356S039000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06317511
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to method and apparatus for particle image analysis, and more particularly to method and apparatus suitable for picking up and analyzing still images of particles suspended in a fluid sample flowed through a flow cell.
In prior art particle image analysis, in order to classify and analyze corpuscles in blood or cells and particles in urine, a sample is prepared on a slide glass and it is observed through a microscope. For the urine, since a particle density in the urine is low, the sample is previously centrifugally concentrated by a centrifugal separator before it is observed.
As a method or apparatus for automating the observation and the inspection procedures, a sample of blood, for example, is applied onto a slide glass which is then mounted on a microscope, and a microscope stage is automatically scanned and stopped at a position where particles are present to pick up a still particle image, and the particles in the sample are classified and analyzed by using feature extraction and pattern recognition methods by image processing techniques.
However, in the above method, it takes a long time to prepare the sample and perform the procedures to find the particles while mechanically moving the microscope stage for moving the particles to an appropriate image read area. Accordingly, a long time is required for the analysis and the mechanical structure is complicated.
As a particle image analysis method or a particle image analysis apparatus which does not need the preparation of the applied sample, a flow cytometer method has been known in which sample particles suspended in fluid are flowed through a flow cell and they are optically analyzed. The flow cytometer method observes a strength of fluorescence or scattered light from each particle in the sample and has a processing ability of 1000 particles per second.
Additionally, an attempt to pick up still particle images of particles in a continuously flowing sample and classifying and analyzing the particles from the respective still particle images has been made. An example thereof is disclosed in JP-A-7-83817.
According to the technique disclosed in JP-A-7-83817, particles picked up in one image which is picked up by an image pick-up unit and particles detected by a particle detection unit are correlated one to one. Thus, particles corresponding to the detected particles of the particles present in the image when a flash lamp light source is lit are counted from the particle detection signal, and the count is correlated to the detected particles of the particles present in the image to discriminate the particles which are not regarded as the detected particles from the detected particles. As a result, a complicated circuit configuration is required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a flow type particle image analysis method and a flow type particle image analysis apparatus which facilitate the correlation between particles obtained by a particle detection unit and particle images obtained by a particle image pick-up unit.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a particle image analysis method for picking up still images of particles as the particles flowing in a flow cell are detected and analyzing the picked-up still images of the particles, comprising a step of flowing fluid having particles suspended therein to the flow cell, a step of counting the number of still images of particles having lager sizes than a predetermined size, of the still images of particles obtained for the fluid, a step of counting the number of particles having larger detection signals than a predetermined level, of the particles detected for the fluid, a step of calculating the anticipated number of particles to be image-processed based on the counted number of particles; and a step of comparing the counted number of still images and the calculated number of particles.
According to another aspect the present invention, there is provided a particle image analysis apparatus having particle detection means for detecting particles in a sample flowing in a flow cell, a light source for emitting a pulsive light in response to the detection of the particle, means for picking up still images of the particles in response to light emission and means for analyzing the picked-up still images of particles; comprising detection condition adjusting unit for receiving a particle detection signal from said particle detection means, characterized in that said detection condition adjusting unit including a) size setting means for setting a lower limit of a size of particle to be image-processed, b) count means for counting the number of still images of particles having larger sizes than the setting set by said size setting means, c) detection signal setting means for setting a magnitude of a signal to be limited, of the output signal from said particle detection means, d) signal count means for counting the number of signals larger than the setting set by said detection signal setting means, e) calculation means for calculating the anticipated number of particles to be image-processed based on information from said signal count means, and f) compare means for comparing the counted number of still images with the calculated number of particles.
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patent: 7-83817 (1995-03-01), None
Hitachi , Ltd.
Johns Andrew W.
Mattingly Stanger & Malur, P.C.
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