DEVICE FOR DETERMINING AGGREGATES IN BLOOD SPECIMENS

To provide a device for determining aggregates in blood specimens that can sufficiently agitate a blood specimen storing container from which blood samples are collected and can determine the presence or absence of aggregates with a high degree of accuracy.SOLUTION: A device for determining aggregates in blood specimens includes: a drive unit that radially rotates a specimen container from which a blood specimen is collected around its longitudinal approximately center position while circumferentially rotating it around its longitudinal axis; imaging means provided in the drive unit to move in accordance with the radial rotation of the specimen container by the drive unit and to take a fixed-point image of a predetermined imaging area of the specimen container; and a control device that controls operations of the drive unit and the imaging means. The control device is configured to continuously image, using the imaging means, a blood specimen coating formed on an inner surface of the specimen container by the circumferential and radial rotation of the specimen container by the drive unit, perform image processing on the obtained image by spatial filtering processing of its luminance distribution, and determine the presence or absence of aggregates based on image data after the image processing.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2 【課題】 血液試料を採取した血液検体収容容器を十分に攪拌でき、かつ、高精度の凝集物の存在の有無の判定ができる血液検体中の凝集物判定装置を得る。【解決手段】血液検体が採取された検体容器を、その長手方向軸線を中心に周方向回動させながら、その長手方向略中心位置を中心に径方向回動させる駆動部と、駆動部による検体容器の径方向回動に追従して移動し、検体容器の所定の撮像領域を定点撮像するように前記駆動部に設けられた撮像手段と駆動部及び撮像手段の動作を制御する制御装置とを備え、制御装置が、駆動部による検体容器の周方向及び径方向回動によって検体容器の内面に形成された血液検体の塗膜を撮像手段によって連続撮像し、得られた画像をその輝度分布を空間フィルタ処理により画像処理し、画像処理後の画像データに基づいて凝集物の存在の有無を判定するように構成されていることを特徴とする血液検体中の凝集物判定装置を提供する。【選択図】 図２