WO2001088179A1

WO2001088179A1 - Auto cell-smearing method for cytology

Info

Publication number: WO2001088179A1
Application number: PCT/KR2001/000807
Authority: WO
Inventors: Won-Bae Lee; Hae-Won Kim
Original assignee: Lee Won Bae; Kim Hae Won
Priority date: 2000-05-19
Filing date: 2001-05-17
Publication date: 2001-11-22
Also published as: KR20010105975A; AU2001258887A1

Abstract

The present invention provides a method of spreading test sample cells on the slides for cancer diagnostic examination comprising the steps of putting the collected cervical cells into funnel-type fixation container for the fixation, putting the fixation container containing the cells on the separated machinery system followed by sucking the cells precipitated in the bottom of fixation container with the sucking tubes attached in the machinery system, and spreading the sucked cells onto slides for equal distribution. The advantage of the present invention is in improving uniform spreading of thicker cells in the slides compared to former processes, without overlapped layers of cells, which contributes to lower the erroneous diagnosis rate, and automating the slide preparation process, which save laborous work done by clinical pathologist, such as drying the slides out of fixation container, labeling and staining them after placing in the staining rack. Additionally, this invention is advantageous for replacing the imported equipments with domestic good in order to save foreign currency and the cost of medical treatments.

Description

AUTO CELL-SMEARING METHOD FOR CYTOLOGY

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to methods for the use in the pathological test of cancer such as cervical cancer. More particularly, the present invention provides the methods for automatic slide preparation by spreading sample cells evenly on the slides, which is critical for the accurate diagnosis. The traditional methods of spreading test specimens on the slide (300) for the cancer diagnosis test were proceeded as described in the figure 1. In the traditional methods, sampling was done by collecting the cells from the patient's cervix with cotten swabs or brushes. After cells have been collected, they were spreaded onto the slides. Then, the slides(300) were inserted into the fixation solution in the fixation container (100) to fix the cells(lθ) and sent to pathology laboratory. Clinical pathologist took out the sample slides, dried and labeled the slides with the name and the registration number of the patients. Many labeled slides(300) placed in the staining racks (40) were inserted into the staining solution, were taken out and covered with cover glass(500) for the observation of the stained cells. The slides prepared as described above were examined in the pathology laboratory.

The disadvantage of the prior art process is in overlapping of sample cells due to uneven distribution of cells over the slides(300) preventing the accurate microscopic observation and causing the erroneous diagnosis of the cancer. Other disadvantages in former processes are the inconvenience of collecting and transferring of the cells into the slides, the high misdiagnosis rate due to uneven distribution of cells in the slides and the laborous work done by clinical pathologist, such as drying the slides, labeling and staining slides after placing in the staining rack. At present time, the procedure utilized for spreading cells in many of domestic hospital costs a lot and requires the imported test equipments, since it is done exactly same as in foreign countries. The process is not automated so that it can not save the time and effort.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To overcome those limitations of the prior art processes, the present invention provides an improved method of spreading test sample cells on the slides for cancer diagnostic examination comprising the steps of putting the collected cervical cells into funnel-type fixation container for the fixation (Fixation step make the cells maintain their morphology, even the cells are dead.), putting the fixation container containing the cells on the separated machinery system followed by sucking the cells precipitated in the bottom of fixation container with the sucking tubes attached in the machinery system, and spreading the sucked cells onto slides fed automatically.

The advantage of the present invention is in improving uniform spreading of thicker cells in the slides compared to former processes without overlapped layers of cells, which contributes to lower the erroneous diagnosis rate, and automating the slide preparation process, which save laborous work done by clinical pathologist, such as drying the slides out of fixation container, labeling and staining them after placing in the staining rack. Additionally, This invention is advantageous for replacing the imported equipments with domestic goods. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is the preferred embodiment of the prior art including the procedure spreading cells on the slides for the cancer diagnostic test.

FIG. 2 is the preferred embodiment of present invention including the procedure spreading sample cells on the slides utilizing the fixation container of this invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the fixation container of the present invention.

<The explanation of the major code in the drawings.> 1 : fixation container 2: sucking tube 3: slide 4: rack 5:cover glass

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The preferred embodiments of this invention can be described in detail as following.

In the process of pathological cancer test comprising spreading sample cells collected from the patient's cervix on the slides for cancer diagnostic, putting into fixation solution, drying and staining the slides placed in the rack followed by examination of prepared slides, the preferred embodiments of this invention comprises the steps of putting the collected cervical cells(lθ) into funnel-type fixation container(l) for the fixation, the steps of sucking the cells(lθ) precipitated in the bottom of fixation container (1) with the sucking tubes(2) and spreading the sucked cells onto slides(3), the steps of placing many slides(3) spreaded with cells in the staining racks (4), the steps of inserting racks (4) with slides into the staining solution for staining, the steps of covering the cells on the slides with cover slides for protection, and the step of examining the stained cells under the microscope. Another preferred embodiment of this invention comprises the steps of putting the collected cervical cells(lθ) into funnel-type fixation container(l) for the fixation, the steps of collecting the cells(lθ) in the spraying container and spraying the sucked cells onto slides(3) for the even distribution of the cells, the steps of inserting the slides (4) into the rack for staining in an automatic way, drying and examining the stained cells.

In this invention proceeded as described above, the test cells collected from the patient's cervix with cotten swabs or brushes, inserted and stored for a few minutes on the fixation solution in the funnel-type container (1), maintain their morphology even in the dead stage and concentrated at the bottom of the container, while the blood floated to the top of the solution with alcohols.

0.02-0.04 ml volume out of the cells precipitated in the bottom of fixation container are sucked with the sucking tubes attached in the machinery system, and spreaded evenly onto automatically fed-slides with roller attached to the same machinery system.

In this invention, the cells, already fixed at the time of spreading, is strong enough not to be damaged or aggregated, which is good for better examination. The slides spreaded with 0.02-0.04ml volume cells were labeled with patient's name, placed in the staining racks (4), inserted into the staining solution for staining, labeled with patient's name, covered with cover slides for protection, and examined under the microscope for cancer diagnosis.

Another preferred embodiments of this invention comprise the steps of putting the collected cervical cells(lθ) into funnel-type fixation container(l) for the fixation, the steps of collecting the cells(lθ) in the spraying container and spraying the sucked cells onto slides(3) for the even distribution of the cells without overlapping, which enable the pathologist to examine more cells selectively under the microscope for accurate diagnosis.

The processes of this invention carried out as described above is automated from the steps of sucking the cells precipitated in the fixation container, upto the steps of spreading or upto the steps of staining to save the labor of many workers.

Additionally, the cells remained in the fixation container can be utilized for the reexamination and research. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The processes of this invention carried out as described above, enable examiner to draw a lot of cells by storing the cells taken from patients's cervix and collecting in the bottom of funnel-type fixation container. This is significant improvements enabling uniform spreading of thicker cells in the slides compared to former processes, without overlapped layers of cells, which contributes to lower the erroneous diagnosis rate and save the number of workers needed for staining and spreading, process. Additionally, This invention is advantageous for replacing the imported equipments with domestic goods, which leads to save the foreign currency and to improve quality of domestic test equipments

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. In the process of pathological cancer test comprising spreading sample cells collected from the patient's cervix on the slides, putting into fixation solution, drying, and staining the slides placed in the rack followed by examination of prepared slides, the method of preparing the slides for diagnostic examination comprising the steps of: a. fixing the collected cervical cells(lθ) by putting into funnel-type fixation container(l), b. spreading the sucked cells onto slides(3) after sucking the cells(lθ) precipitated in the bottom of fixation container(l) with the sucking tubes(2), c. placing many slides(3) spreaded with cells in the staining racks (4), d. staining the slides by inserting racks (4) with slides into the staining solution, e. covering the cells on the slides (3) with cover slides(5) for protection, f. examining the stained cells under the microscope.

2. the method of preparing the slides for diagnostic examination in claim 1 comprising the steps of: a. fixing the collected cervical cells(lθ) by putting into funnel-type fixation container(l), b. putting the fixed cells in the spraying container, c. spraying the cells onto slides for even distribution of cells.