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US 2014/0273088 A1Published application
Method, apparatus and system for staining of biological samples
AssigneeVictorious Medical Systems ApS
InventorLars Winther
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method, an automated apparatus and a system for staining of a plurality of biological samples arranged on slides, e.g. for histological and cytological examination. A patient case having slides arranged in a frame is loaded into the apparatus, in which pre-treatment, including e.g. drying, baking, dewaxing and target retrieval, as well as staining, is carried out differently in respect of the slides in accordance with predetermined or operator-specified treatment protocols.
Claims26
A method for staining of a plurality of biological samples arranged on a plurality of slides, comprising:
- (a) arranging the slides in a frame to form a case, in which the plurality of slides are held in mutually fixed positions at respective sites in the frame;
- (b) loading the case into an automated staining apparatus, said automated staining apparatus comprising;
- a processing section including a plurality of stations for pre-treatment and staining of the slides, and a storage section for storing the case when the case is outside the processing section;
- (c) causing an electronic control system, which controls operation of the staining apparatus, to assign a slide identifier to each of the slides in the case;
- (d) loading, into said electronic control system, a first treatment protocol for at least one of the slides within the case and a second treatment protocol for at least another one of the slides within the case, wherein each treatment protocol identifies at least one pre-treatment operation and at least one staining operation of a staining process and provides at least one process parameter value of each of said pre-treatment and staining operations, and wherein at least one process parameter value of the first treatment protocol is different from at least one process parameter value of the second treatment protocol;
- (e) causing said stations of the automated apparatus to:
- subject each of the slides in the case to said pre-treatment and said staining operation in accordance with said at least one process parameter, the apparatus carrying out pre-treatment and optionally staining differently in respect of at least two of the slides within the case and moves the case to and from the stations as required by the treatment protocols;
- wherein the step of subjecting each of the slides to said pre-treatment comprises subjecting the slides to target retrieval operations carried out in target retrieval units, in which target retrieval is carried out while each target retrieval unit accommodates one single slide only, so as to individually control the target retrieval operations in respect of each one of the slides;
- (f) unloading the case from the processing section of the automated staining apparatus;
- (g) storing the case in the storage section of the automated apparatus at a point in time, which occurs before or after the electronic control system has assigned a slide identifier to each of the slides in the case and:
- before the case is loaded into the processing section of the automated staining apparatus;
- or
- after completion of at least one of said pre-treatment and said staining operations, but before completion of a subsequent one of said pre-treatment and said staining operations;
- or
- after completion of said staining operations, but before completion of a subsequent post-staining operation;
- or
- after completion of all of said pre-treatment, said staining and said post-staining operations;
- wherein in steps (b) through (g) the slides remain secured to the frame at all times from a first point in time, when the case is being loaded into the automated staining apparatus, until a second later point in time, when the case has been removed from the automated staining apparatus.
15 more elements
A method for staining of a plurality of biological samples arranged on slides, comprising:
- arranging the slides in a frame, in which the slides are held in mutually fixed positions at respective sites;
- loading the frame with the slides into an automated staining apparatus comprising a plurality of stations for pre-treatment and staining of the slides;
- causing an electronic control system of the staining apparatus to assign a slide identifier to each of the slides in the frame;
- loading, into said electronic control system, a first treatment protocol for at least one of the slides and a second treatment protocol for at least another one of the slides, wherein each treatment protocol identifies at least one pre-treatment operation and at least one staining operation of a staining process and provides at least one process parameter value of each of said pre-treatment and staining operations, and wherein at least one process parameter value of the first treatment protocol is different from at least one process parameter value of the second treatment protocol;
- causing said stations of the automated apparatus to subject each of the slides to said pre-treatment and said staining operation in accordance with said at least one process parameter, whereby the apparatus carries out pre-treatment and/or staining differently in respect of at least two of the slides and moves the slides to and from the stations as required by the treatment protocols;
- and
- unloading the frame with the slides from the automated staining apparatus.
4 more elements
An automated apparatus for staining of a plurality of biological samples arranged on slides, comprising:
- a structure for supporting a frame for holding the slides in mutually fixed positions at respective sites;
- an electronic control system configured to (i) assign a site identifier to each of the sites, (ii) assign a slide identifier to each of the slides, and (iii) associate each of the slide identifiers with the site identifier of the site holding the slide;
- the electronic control system further comprising data input structure for receiving a first treatment protocol for at least one of the slides and a second treatment protocol for at least another one of the slides, the treatment protocol identifying at least one pre-treatment operation and at least one staining operation of a staining process and providing at least one process parameter value of each of said pre-treatment and staining operations, wherein at least one process parameter value of the first treatment protocol is different from at least one process parameter value of the second treatment protocol;
- a plurality of stations, each station comprising structure for carrying out at least one of said pre-treatment and staining operations, respectively, and each station being configured to receive control signals from said electronic control system, so as to perform the pre-treatment and staining operations of each of the slides in accordance with the treatment protocol, whereby the apparatus carries pre-treatment and/or staining out differently in respect of at least two of the slides;
- and
- a conveyor system configured to position the frame and the slides relative to the stations in a sequence prescribed by said treatment protocol and in response to control signals provided by the electronic control system.
3 more elements
An automated apparatus for staining of biological samples arranged on a plurality of slides, comprising:
- (a) a structure for supporting a frame for holding the slides in mutually fixed positions at respective sites, wherein the frame with the slides forms a case;
- (b) a processing section including a plurality of stations for pre-treatment and staining of the slides;
- (c) an electronic control system configured to control operation of the staining apparatus and to assign a slide identifier to each of the slides in the case;
- (d) an electronic memory operatively associated with the electronic control system comprising, the electronic memory storing a first treatment protocol for at least one of the slides within the case and a second treatment protocol for at least another one of the slides within the case, wherein each treatment protocol identifies at least one pre-treatment operation and at least one staining operation of a staining process and provides at least one process parameter value of each of said pre-treatment and staining operations, and wherein at least one process parameter value of the first treatment protocol is different from at least one process parameter value of the second treatment protocol;
- (e) a plurality of target retrieval units for carrying out target retrieval in respect of each of the slides, each target retrieval unit being configured to accommodate one single slide only at a time;
- said control system and target retrieval units being configured to individually control the target retrieval operations in respect of each one of the slides;
- said stations of the automated apparatus being configured to subject each of the slides in the case to said pre-treatment and said staining operation in accordance with said at least one process parameter, so as to allow the apparatus to carry out pre-treatment and optionally staining differently in respect of at least two of the slides within the case and to cause the case to be moved to and from the stations as required by the treatment protocols;
- (f) structure for allowing the case to be unloaded from the processing section of the automated staining apparatus;
- (g) a storage section for storing the case when the case is outside the processing section, the control system being configured to store the case in the storage section of the automated apparatus at a point in time, which occurs before or after the electronic control system has assigned a slide identifier to each of the slides in the case and:
- before the case is loaded into the processing section of the automated staining apparatus;
- or
- after completion of at least one of said pre-treatment and said staining operations, but before completion of a subsequent one of said pre-treatment and said staining operations;
- or
- after completion of said staining operations, but before completion of a subsequent post-staining operation;
- or
- after completion of all of said pre-treatment, said staining and said post-staining operations;
- wherein the apparatus is configured to handle the case with the slides remain secured to the frame at all times from a first point in time, when the case is being loaded into the automated staining apparatus, until a second later point in time, when the case is unloaded from the automated staining apparatus.
14 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.