JPH023137B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cell analyzer, and particularly to a cell analyzer suitable for application to an apparatus that morphologically classifies cells after enlarging the image of cells such as blood cells with a microscope and capturing the image with a television camera. Regarding analysis equipment.

Examples of such cell analysis devices include cell diagnostic devices that extract cancer cells from cells, and automatic blood image analyzers that detect abnormal white blood cells of each type of white blood cell. In these devices, an image pattern of cells or white blood cells in a specimen is converted into an electrical signal using an image pickup tube, and this analog image signal is converted into a digital signal and then temporarily stored in a storage device. Then, the feature extraction circuit reads out this digital image signal and classifies cells and white blood cells based on the features of the pattern. The storage capacity of conventional storage devices is usually 1
This is image information of individual cells or white blood cells. However, as equipment becomes increasingly automated and unmanned, it is now desirable to visually classify specific cells that cannot be classified by the equipment or unknown cells such as white blood cells and abnormal white blood cells by a human (laboratory technician) after testing all specimens. There is a growing demand for this.

In an automatic leukocyte classification device, images of a predetermined number of 100 or 200 white blood cells are extracted from a single slide specimen through an optical microscope, and six classifications of normal blood cells and abnormal blood cells are detected. Cells that cannot be identified and classified by the device are treated as unknown cells.

Conventionally, a method has been used in which automatic discrimination processing is interrupted every time an unknown cell appears, and processing of a single specimen is resumed and continued after waiting for a laboratory technician to manually obtain the discrimination results. However, this method has the disadvantage that in the process of distinguishing a single specimen, it is not known when unknown cells will appear, and the laboratory technician is therefore bound to the equipment.

In order to eliminate these drawbacks, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.
50850 proposes a method of recording unknown cells one after another on a video recorder and playing them back when needed. This method allows laboratory technicians to review unknown cells all at once after analyzing a large number of specimens. However, it takes time to record time-lapse images to a video recorder, which ultimately increases the overall analysis time. It takes about 600ms to record one screen of information time-lapse with a video recorder. Furthermore, when a video recorder is used, there is a problem that the resolution is low, so the image obtained when rewatching the video is poor.

An object of the present invention is to provide a cell analysis device that does not require a time-lapse operation on a video recorder when re-viewing unknown cells and can obtain high-quality images during re-viewing.

A feature of the present invention is that in an apparatus for capturing microscopically observed images of cells on a specimen with a television camera and processing the image signals from the television camera to analyze the cells, the image signals from the television camera are converted into digital signals. a temporary image storage device that temporarily stores images; a classification device that classifies cells on a specimen positioned in a microscope based on the image information stored in the temporary image storage device; a storage image storage device that receives image information corresponding to unknown cells that could not be detected from the temporary image storage device each time an unknown cell appears and sequentially stores the image information as a digital signal together with the specimen number of the specimen to which the unknown cell belongs; an input device for inputting reproduction instructions for a sample that has undergone cell analysis and contains unknown cells; and an input device for converting image information stored in the storage image storage device into an analog signal in response to a signal from the input device. The present invention includes an image display device that displays an image of a cell image.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described using FIGS. 1 to 5.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an automatic blood image analyzer for automatically classifying white blood cells, etc., and FIG. 2 shows the external appearance of the embodiment of FIG. 1.

The automatic blood image analyzer shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is equipped with an optical microscope 1 and a specimen moving device 3. In FIG. The specimen moving device 3 is equipped with a stage on which a stained blood specimen is placed, and by moving this stage horizontally under the optical microscope 1 by a drive motor, the position of the microscope field on the specimen is automatically changed. It performs the same function as looking at a specimen through a microscope.

The optical microscope 1 includes a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in a row to receive the transmitted light of the specimen 4.
A dimensional image sensor 9 and a television camera 33 that converts an image of white blood cells on a specimen into a television signal are attached. This apparatus also includes a cassette 42 for storing the specimen 4 and a specimen loading device 41 for supplying the specimen 4 to the specimen moving device 3. The output section includes an operation console 36 for inputting initial settings of the device and re-viewing instructions, and a monitor/TV 1 for displaying white blood cell images and classification results after being switched by a multiplex circuit 37.
4. A printer 38 for outputting the classification results is provided. TV camera 33 is on the lower right side of the device.
A TV camera control unit 46 that controls output signals from the TV camera, and a power supply unit 4 that houses various power sources.
5. A drive unit 44 for driving the stage provided in the specimen moving device 3, and a feature extraction circuit 34 for extracting features of a white blood cell image and a high-speed circuit for classifying white blood cells are located on the lower left side. A calculation unit 43 houses a microcomputer 35, a magnetic disk 39 in the lower center for recording the device's program and classification results, and a cartridge for storing image information of unknown cells such as white blood cells or abnormal white blood cells that the device could not classify. A type magnetic tape 18a is provided.

The specimen 4 smeared with blood is sent out from the cassette 42 and transferred to the specimen moving device 3 by the specimen loading device 41.
is fed to the stage of the microscope. The specimen 4 is moved to the inspection starting position on the specimen 4 in the microscope field of view of the optical microscope 1 by the specimen moving device 3 which is controlled by the digital control circuit 12 including another microcomputer in response to instructions from the microcomputer 35. is moved to the desired position, and focusing is performed automatically.

Next, when a command to detect white blood cells is issued from the microcomputer 35 to the digital control circuit 12,
The stage of the specimen moving device 3 is horizontally moved under the microscope 1 by a drive circuit 17 housed in a drive unit 44, and the specimen is scanned by the microscope at regular intervals.

When a white blood cell 21 as shown in FIG. 3 is detected by scanning the specimen 4, the white blood cell is moved to the center of the microscope visual field 22. In addition, the white blood cell 2
The scanning direction for 1 detection is the direction of arrow a shown in FIG. 4, and when the sample scanning range width 23 is exceeded, the direction is changed to the direction shown by arrow b to perform rectangular scanning. In this way, while scanning the specimen 4, the white blood cell detection circuit 11 detects the grayscale image from the image sensor 9.
When a white blood cell detection signal is obtained by comparison with a reference value, the digital control circuit 12 stops the stage of the specimen moving device 3, and the white blood cell detection circuit 11 automatically performs focusing.

Thereafter, the white blood cell image is converted into an analog electrical signal via a television camera 33 having an image pickup tube and a television camera control unit 46, and is converted into an analog electric signal by an analog-to-digital conversion circuit 13 and a multiplex circuit 2.
It leads to 0. At this time, the multiplex circuit 20
If 37 and 37 are switched to a predetermined switch, this white blood cell image is displayed on the monitor television 14. Further, the digital image signal of white blood cells from the analog-to-digital conversion circuit 13 is stored in a first storage device 15, which is a temporary image storage device such as an image memory. Based on this digital image signal, a feature extraction circuit 34 obtains various feature amounts necessary for classifying white blood cells, and a microcomputer 35 performs identification and classification of white blood cells based on these feature amounts.

At this time, if the classification result is unknown cells such as unknown cells or abnormal white blood cells, the digital image signal stored in the temporary image storage device 15 is sent together with the sample number of the sample and the type of white blood cell to identify the image signal. , for example, in an external storage device 18a, which is a storage image storage device such as a cartridge magnetic tape. Thereafter, the microcomputer 35 sends the next white blood cell detection command to the digital control circuit 12. Image information of unknown cells is stored in the storage device 18a each time an unknown cell appears.

In this way, when the specified number of white blood cells have been classified for each specimen, the classification results are printed on the printer 38 and the multiplex circuit 2
It is displayed on the monitor television 14 that 0 and 37 are switched to the required switches. Furthermore, this classification result is stored on the magnetic disk 39 along with the specimen number.

If a specimen review regarding unknown cells is desired after the completion of testing multiple specimens, the laboratory technician inputs a re-viewing instruction from the operation console 36, and the microcomputer 35 issues a command to read out the contents of the cartridge-type magnetic tape device 18a. The digital image signal of the sample that matches the sample number of the target sample containing unknown cells is sent via the first storage device 15 and the digital-to-analog conversion circuit 19 to switch the analog multiplex circuits 20 and 37 to the required switch side. By doing so, the unknown cell image is displayed on the monitor television 14, so that the laboratory technician can review the specimens of unknown balls and abnormal balls.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the following effects can be achieved. In other words, since image information of unknown cells and information such as the specimen number and white blood cell type that identify this image information are stored digitally, by specifying the information that identifies this image information (for example, specimen number), , the desired image can be obtained in a short time and can be easily reviewed.

Also, since it is not necessary to store all information about all specimens, less storage capacity is required. And even though the storage capacity is small,
Since it is a digital storage, the time required for storage is short and the processing capacity of specimens can be improved.

Furthermore, while the normal number of scanning lines for television images is 512, VTRs usually have 200 to 300 scanning lines, which is poor resolution. Therefore, using a VTR has the disadvantage that the image quality is poor when rewatching and it is difficult to rewatch, but based on the present invention, because it is digital storage, it is possible to obtain the same resolution as 512 videos.

In addition, in the above embodiment, for feature extraction,
After the image information is once stored as a digital signal, the image information of unknown cells is stored in another digital storage means. Even when the discrimination of the type of white blood cell is completed, the image information of the white blood cell remains, so that the image information determined as an unknown cell can be easily stored in an external storage device 18a and can be viewed again.

The external storage device 18a and the digital-to-analog conversion circuit 19 are circuits that make it possible to review specific white blood cells, abnormal white blood cells, etc., and are configured as shown in FIG. The apparatus uses high-speed digital-to-analog conversion circuits 27, 28, and 29 capable of converting at a television scanning frequency of about 6.15 MHz, for example, as the digital-to-analog conversion circuit 19,
input buffer IC 25 for the image memory circuit 24;
26 is controlled by a signal from a computer 35, the buffer 26 is kept conductive during leukocyte classification, and the image information from the analog-to-digital conversion circuit 13 is supplied to the feature extraction circuit 34, and when re-examining the sample after leukocyte classification, The buffer 25 is made conductive and the image information from the magnetic tape device 18a is supplied to the memory circuit 24.

The multiplex circuit converts the image information into analog values by the three digital-to-analog converters 27, 28, and 29 to simultaneously convert the image information into the three primary colors red, green, and blue. 20
By switching the analog switches 30 and 31 with the computer 35, the signal is supplied to the image display device 14, for example, a monitor television. Also, when reviewing images of unknown cells, a magnetic tape device 18a, an image storage device 15,
and digital-to-analog converters 27, 28,
29 are synchronized under control from a computer 35. In this way, the image display device 1
The specific white blood cells and abnormal white blood cells displayed in 4 can be reclassified at the discretion of the laboratory technician.

During leukocyte classification, the output signal of the image storage device 5 is directed to the computer 35. This computer 35 performs calculations necessary for classifying white blood cells based on image information from the image storage device 15. The output signal of the cell detection circuit 11 is transmitted to the digital control circuit 12.
White blood cells are identified based on the concentration difference guided by
When it is identified as white blood cells, the movement of the specimen 4 on the specimen moving device 3 is stopped via the drive circuit 17. This drive circuit 17 is a circuit for driving the power source of the sample moving device.

In the above configuration, when white blood cell classification is started, the digital control circuit 12 moves the specimen 4 on the specimen moving device 3 in the direction of the arrow within the scanning range 23 in FIG. 4 via the drive circuit 17. When white blood cells 21 within the field of view 22 of the optical microscope 1 are detected by the one-dimensional image sensor 9, the digital control circuit 12 stops the specimen 4 on the specimen moving device 3 via the drive circuit 17. At this time, the white blood cells 21 are controlled by the digital control circuit 12 so as to stop at the center of the visual field 22.
At this time, the white blood cells 21 within the viewing range 22 are imaged by the television camera 33 and converted into an image signal. This image signal is connected to an image display device 14, and is also connected to an analog/digital conversion circuit 13.
It is converted into digital image information via the image storage device 15, and at the same time, the computer 35 performs calculations necessary for classifying white blood cells based on this image information, and the classification of white blood cells is performed based on the results of the calculations. Upon completion, a movement command is issued from the digital control circuit 12 to the specimen movement device 3 via the drive circuit 17 so as to detect the next white blood cell.

At this time, if the white blood cell classification result is unknown cells such as unclear blood cells or abnormal white blood cells, the image storage device 15
The image information is stored in the external storage device 18 along with the specimen number.
Store in a. When the classification of the set number of white blood cells for each specimen is completed, image information of unknown cells such as white blood cells that could not be automatically identified by the device or abnormal white blood cells is sequentially stored in the external storage device 18a.

Thereafter, when sequentially reading out the image information stored in the external storage device 18a (for re-viewing), the analog switch 30 in the multiplexer circuit 20 is turned on, and the image information is stored in accordance with the readout signal from the computer 35 to the external storage device 18a. It is read out to the memory circuit 24 in the device 15. The image information in this memory circuit 24 is stored in the computer 3
Red, green, and blue are converted into analog image signals by the digital-to-analog conversion signals from 5 through the respective digital-to-analog converters 27, 28, and 29, and while the display signal on the monitor television 14 is conducting, The required cell morphology is displayed.

As described above, according to this embodiment, image information stored in the external storage device 18a is transferred to the digital-to-analog converter 2 via the image storage device 15.
7, 28, and 29 can be converted into analog image information and displayed on the image display device 14, and the image information of unclear blood cells and abnormal white blood cells can be stored semi-permanently.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the present invention, and the same parts as in FIG. 5 are designated by the same reference numerals. The difference from FIG. 5 is that there is one digital-to-analog converter 32 for each of red, green, and blue, and the conversion of red, green, and blue is performed in a time-division manner. In this embodiment, furthermore, one digital-to-analog converter 32 is provided.
Since it can be reduced to 100 pieces, it has the effect of reducing costs.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above, and the case where the present invention is applied to an automatic blood image analyzer has been described, but the present invention can also be applied to cytodiagnosis and the like for detecting cells such as cancer.

As described above, according to the present invention, images of unknown cells that the device could not classify during automatic operation are imported from the temporary image storage device for classification determination to the storage image storage device and stored, and after the sample analysis is completed. Since the unknown cell image can be called up on an image display device such as a monitor television, the unknown cell can be visually re-examined efficiently. In addition, there is no need to take time-lapse operations on the video recorder when watching again.
The overall analysis time can be shortened, and since image information for re-viewing is stored as a digital signal, a high-quality image can be obtained upon re-viewing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention in an automatic blood image analyzer, FIG. 2 is an overview diagram of an automatic blood image analyzer based on the embodiment of FIG. 1, and FIGS. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of sample scanning, FIG. 5 is a detailed block diagram of the main part of the embodiment of FIG. 1, and FIG.
The figure is a diagram showing a modification of FIG. 5. 1... Optical microscope, 13... Analog-digital conversion circuit, 14... Monitor television, 15...
Image storage device, 18a...external storage device, 20,
37...Multiplex circuit, 33...TV camera, 34...Feature extraction circuit, 35...Microcomputer, 36...Operation console.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a device that captures a microscopic observation image of cells on a specimen with a television camera and processes the image signal from the television camera to analyze the cells, a temporary device that temporarily stores the image signal from the television camera as a digital signal. an image storage device; a classification device for classifying cells on a specimen positioned in a microscope based on the image information stored in the temporary image storage device; and an unknown cell that cannot be classified by the classification device. A storage image storage device that receives image information corresponding to a cell from the temporary image storage device each time an unknown cell appears and sequentially stores it as a digital signal together with the specimen number of the specimen to which the unknown cell belongs; an input device for inputting a re-viewing instruction for a specimen for which cell analysis has been completed; and a cell image is displayed by converting image information stored in the storage image storage device into an analog signal in response to a signal from the input device. 1. A cell analysis device comprising: an image display device.