JP7675450B2 - Sample-containing liquid preparation device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a sample-containing liquid preparation device for preparing a sample-containing liquid that contains samples such as stool samples wiped from the surface or plaque.

Sample collection devices with a brush-like collection part, such as an interdental brush, are sometimes used to collect samples such as plaque and excrement, and tests and analyses such as PCR are performed on them. In order to increase the quantitative accuracy of the samples used for testing and analysis, it has been proposed to pass the collection part through a hole whose inner diameter is smaller than the outer diameter of the collection part of the sample collection device, and to peel off excess sample adhering to the collection part (see Patent Document 1).

Patent No. 6589037

Sample testing and analysis are often performed by mixing the sample with a liquid. For this reason, the collection part of the sampling tool needs to be immersed in the liquid to mix, but during this process there is a risk that the worker's hands may touch the sample or that the sample may splash. For this reason, the process of mixing the sample with the liquid needs to be performed carefully.

The present invention was made in consideration of the above problems, and aims to make it possible to hygienically prepare a sample-containing liquid that contains a sample.

The sample-containing liquid preparation device according to the present invention is a sample-containing liquid preparation device for preparing a sample-containing liquid by mixing a sample collected by a sample collection tool with a liquid. The sample collection tool has a handle and a collection part extending from the tip of the handle, and the collection part has a thin shaft thinner than the tip of the handle, and collects the sample by attaching it to the periphery of the thin shaft of the collection part. The sample-containing liquid preparation device includes a device body and a cap that can be attached to the device body. The device body includes a mixing space for mixing the sample and the liquid, an insertion port that opens larger than the thin shaft of the collection part of the sample collection tool and communicates with the mixing space, and is used to insert the collection part from the tip into the mixing space from the outside, and an extraction port that is provided at a position separate from the insertion port and is used to extract the sample-containing liquid from the mixing space, and the cap is attached to the device body so as to seal the extraction port.

In the sample-containing liquid preparation device according to the present invention, the cap may be a container type, and may be configured so that the sample-containing liquid prepared in the mixing space can be removed from the mixing space while still in the cap by removing the removal port from the device body with the removal port facing downward. With such a configuration, it is easy to remove the sample-containing liquid.

The sample-containing liquid preparation device according to the present invention may be configured such that the collection portion of the sample collection tool is inserted into the mixing space from the insertion opening and the tip of the handle comes into contact with the device body just before the insertion opening, thereby sealing the insertion opening. With this configuration, even if the device is tilted or shaken with the collection portion of the sample collection tool inserted into the insertion opening, the liquid in the mixing space will not leak from the insertion opening, and the sample and liquid can be mixed hygienically and easily in the mixing space.

In the sample-containing liquid preparation device according to the present invention, the collection section of the sample collection tool may be provided with a plurality of bristles extending radially from the thin shaft to form a brush section for holding the sample, and the insertion opening may have an inner diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the brush section, and may be configured so that when the collection section passes through the insertion opening, only the sample attached to the center of the brush section of the collection section remains in the collection section. With this configuration, the amount of sample held in the collection section inserted into the mixing space is made uniform, improving the quantitativeness of the sample contained in the sample-containing liquid prepared in the mixing space.

In the above case, the device body may be configured to have a second insertion port having an outer diameter larger than the inner diameter of the insertion port and smaller than the outer diameter of the brush portion of the sampling part at a position opposite the mixing space across the insertion port, and to have the sample attached to the outer periphery of the brush portion of the sampling part be peeled off by the edge of the second insertion port when the sampling part passes through the second insertion port. In this way, when the sampling part is inserted into the mixing space, the sample excessively attached to the outer periphery of the brush portion of the sampling part can be peeled off by the edge of the second insertion port just before the insertion port. This allows the collection section to be pre-cleaned from a large amount of excess sample that adheres to the outer periphery of the brush portion of the collection section just before the insertion port, preventing excess sample from being left in the collection section when the collection section passes through the insertion port, and more reliably ensuring the quantitative determination of the sample contained in the sample-containing liquid created in the mixing space.

According to the sample-containing liquid preparation device of the present invention, the collection portion of the sample collection tool can be inserted from the insertion port into the mixing space to mix the sample and liquid in the mixing space, making it possible to prepare sample-containing liquid hygienically. Furthermore, an outlet for removing sample-containing liquid from the mixing space is provided in the device body at a position separate from the insertion port, and a cap is attached to the device body to seal the outlet, so that the sample-containing liquid prepared in the mixing space can be easily removed by simply removing the cap.

1 is an external view of an embodiment of a device for preparing a sample-containing liquid; FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a state before a sample sampling device is inserted through a device insertion port in the embodiment. FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing the state in which a sample collection tool is inserted through a tool insertion port in the embodiment. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a state in which a sample and a liquid are mixed in the embodiment. FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a state in which a sample is taken out of a mixing space in the same embodiment.

Below, we will explain one embodiment of a sample-containing liquid preparation device according to the present invention, with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the sample-containing liquid preparation device 1 includes a device body 2 and a cap 4.

The device body 2 is a cylindrical member with openings at both ends. The opening at one end (left side in the figure) is an instrument insertion port 8, and the opening at the other end (right side in the figure) is an extraction port 14. Inside the device body 2, a mixing space 6 is provided for mixing the sample and liquid.

The cap 4 is a container-type member having a space 18 capable of containing liquid therein, and is removably attached to the other end of the device body 2 so that the other end of the device body 2 is accommodated in the opening 16. The cap 4 is attached to the other end of the device body 2, thereby sealing the outlet 14. Note that in this embodiment, the cap 4 is attached and detached to the device body 2 by screwing it in, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the cap 4 may simply cover the other end of the device body 2.

The outlet 14 is an opening for taking out the sample-containing liquid created in the mixing space 6, and is directly connected to the mixing space 6. On the other hand, at the back of the instrument insertion port 8, there are an insertion port 10 and an insertion port 12 (second insertion port) that have a smaller inner diameter than the instrument insertion port 8, and the instrument insertion port 8 is connected to the mixing space 6 via the insertion ports 10 and 12.

As shown in FIG. 2, the instrument insertion port 8 of the device body 2 is an opening for inserting the sample collection instrument 100 toward the mixing space 6. The sample collection instrument 100 is a member having a handle portion 102 and a collection portion 104. The collection portion 104 is a brush-like portion including a thin shaft 104 that is thinner than the tip of the handle portion 102 and extends from the tip of the handle portion 102, and a plurality of bristles 108 that are radially arranged in the circumferential direction from the outer circumferential surface of the thin shaft 104. An example of the sample collection instrument 100 is a general interdental brush. The thin shaft 104 is made of metal, for example, and the bristles 108 are made of resin, for example.

The instrument insertion port 8 of the device body 2 is opened wide so that the handle portion 102 of the sample collection tool 100 can be inserted. On the other hand, the insertion ports 10 and 12 have smaller inner diameters than the instrument insertion port 8. The inner diameters of the insertion ports 10 and 12 are larger than the outer diameter of the thin shaft 106 of the collection part 104 of the sample collection tool 100, but smaller than the outer diameter of the brush part of the collection part 104 (the diameter is from the tip of the bristles 108 to the tip of the bristles 108 on the opposite side). For example, the inner diameter of the insertion port 10 is about 1.5 times the outer diameter of the thin shaft 106, and the inner diameter of the insertion port 12 is about 3 times the outer diameter of the thin shaft 106.

As shown in FIG. 3, the sample-containing liquid preparation device 1 is used by inserting the liquid to be mixed with the sample (water, buffer solution, enzyme water, etc., selected according to the application) into the mixing space 6 and attaching the cap 4 to the device body 2, and then inserting the sample collection tool 100 through the tool insertion port 8 to insert the collection part 104 into the mixing space 6. When the collection part 104 is inserted into the mixing space 6, the collection part 104 passes through the insertion port 12, which has an inner diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the brush part of the collection part 104, and then passes through the insertion port 10. When the collection part 104 passes through the insertion port 12, the sample attached to the outer periphery of the brush part of the collection part 104 is peeled off at the insertion port 12. Furthermore, when the collection part 104 passes through the insertion port 10, the sample other than the sample attached near the center of the collection part 104 is peeled off at the edge of the insertion port 10. As a result, the collection section 104 inserted into the mixing space 6 holds only a certain amount of sample near the center, allowing for quantification of the sample that is mixed with the liquid in the mixing space 6.

If a large amount of sample adheres to the outer periphery of the collection section 104 of the sample collection device 100, it may be possible that, without the insertion port 12, the excess sample cannot be completely removed from the collection section 104 at the edge of the insertion port 10. However, by providing the insertion port 12 just before the insertion port 10, the uniformity of the amount of sample remaining in the collection section 104 inserted into the mixing space 6 is maintained.

When viewed from the side of the instrument insertion port 8, the inner diameter of the inner circumferential surface of the device body 2 gradually decreases toward the insertion port 10. Therefore, when the collection portion 104 is inserted into the mixing space 6, the outer periphery of the handle portion 102 of the sample collection instrument 100 (the outer periphery of the tip portion in the figure) abuts against the inner circumferential surface of the device body 2, sealing the insertion port 10.

As described above, after inserting the collection section 104 holding a certain amount of sample into the mixing space 6, as shown in FIG. 4, the sample-containing liquid preparation device 1 is turned upside down to immerse the collection section 104 in the liquid, and the sample-containing liquid preparation device 1 is then shaken, etc., so that the sample adhering to the collection section 104 in the mixing space 6 is mixed with the liquid to create a sample-containing liquid.

After preparing the sample-containing liquid in the mixing space 6, the sample-containing liquid preparation device 1 is again inverted so that the cap 4 is at the bottom end, as shown in FIG. 5, and the cap 4 is removed from the device body 2, allowing the sample-containing liquid to be removed from the mixing space 6 while still contained in the cap 4.

The sample-containing liquid preparation device 1 described above can handle not only plaque collected by an interdental brush, but also blood, soil, fruit, feces, and contaminants inside pipes as samples. In the above embodiment, the collection portion 104 of the sample collection tool 100 is brush-shaped, but it is not necessary to use a sample collection tool with a brush-shaped collection portion, and the present invention can also be applied to a sample collection tool with a rod-shaped collection portion without hairs.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Sample-containing liquid preparation device 2 Device body 4 Cap 6 Mixing space 8 Instrument insertion port 10 Insertion port 12 Second insertion port 14 Removal port 16 Cap opening 18 Internal space of cap 100 Sample collection tool 102 Handle 104 Collection part 106 Thin shaft 108 Hair

Claims (4)

A sample preparation set including a sample collection tool and a sample-containing liquid preparation device for preparing a sample-containing liquid by mixing a sample collected by the sample collection tool with a liquid,
The sample collection tool has a rod-shaped handle and a collection part extending from a tip of the handle, the collection part has a thin shaft thinner than the tip of the handle, and the sample is collected by adhering it to the periphery of the thin shaft of the collection part,
The sample-containing liquid preparation device includes a device body and a cap that is detachable from the device body,
The device body includes:
a mixing space for mixing the sample and the liquid;
an insertion port that opens larger than the thin shaft of the sampling portion of the sample sampling device and communicates with the mixing space, and is used to insert the sampling portion from the outside into the mixing space from the tip;
an instrument insertion port having an inner diameter larger than an outer diameter of the handle portion and the sampling portion of the sample sampling instrument, for inserting the sample sampling instrument from the sampling portion toward the insertion port;
an outlet provided at a position separate from the insertion port for taking out the sample-containing liquid from the mixing space;
the cap is attached to the device body so as to seal the outlet,
a sample-containing liquid preparation set configured such that, between the instrument insertion port and the insertion port, the device body has a tapered inner circumferential surface whose inner diameter gradually decreases from the instrument insertion port toward the insertion port, and when the sampling portion is inserted into the mixing space through the insertion port, the outer circumferential surface of the tip of the handle portion of the sample sampling instrument abuts against the tapered inner circumferential surface of the device body, thereby sealing the insertion port . The sample-containing liquid preparation set of claim 1, wherein the cap is container-shaped and configured so that the sample-containing liquid prepared in the mixing space can be removed from the mixing space while still contained in the cap by removing the outlet from the device body with the outlet facing downward. The sampling portion of the sample sampling device has a plurality of bristles extending radially from the thin shaft to form a brush portion for holding the sample,
2. The sample-containing liquid preparation set according to claim 1, wherein the insertion port has an inner diameter smaller than an outer diameter of the brush portion, and is configured so that when the collection portion passes through the insertion port, only the sample adhering to the center of the brush portion of the collection portion remains in the collection portion . The sample-containing liquid preparation set according to claim 3, wherein the device body is provided with a second insertion port on the opposite side of the insertion port from the mixing space, the second insertion port having an outer diameter larger than the inner diameter of the insertion port and smaller than the outer diameter of the brush portion of the sampling portion, and wherein when the sampling portion passes through the second insertion port, sample adhering to the outer periphery of the brush portion of the sampling portion is peeled off by the edge of the second insertion port.

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