1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an analysis apparatus using a sample container, which contains a sample to be analyzed and which is provided with an information recording medium for recording information regarding the sample contained in the sample container. More particularly, the present invention relates to an analysis apparatus including a mechanism for pipetting (distributively injecting) a sample contained in one sample container into a plurality of sample containers.
2. Description of the Related Art
The state of the related art will be described below in connection with, by way of example, a medical analyzer for handling living body samples, e.g., blood and urine.
In hospitals and inspection centers, a variety of inspections, such as blood inspection, biochemistry inspection and general inspection, are carried out as clinical inspections by using living body samples, e.g., blood and urine, as specimen materials. An analyzer used for those inspections generally includes a sampler (sample pipetting device) in which measurement is automatically performed after the samples are put in a sample rack and then the sample rack is set in place.
In a recent automatic analyzer, each sample container containing a sample (specimen material) therein or each sample rack for holding several sample containers together is provided with an information recording medium (ID carrier), e.g., a barcode, for recording identification information (sample ID) of the sample in the sample container so that the analyzer or an inspector can identify from whom among patients the relevant sample has been picked. The analyzer or the inspector reads the sample ID from the ID carrier, and judges the relevant sample belongs to whom among patients or what kind of analysis is required.
An actual analysis process is performed in many cases by taking (sampling) a proper amount of a parent sample required for the analysis, which is contained in the sample container, and transferring (pipetting) the picked sample into an analysis-dedicated sample container, which is suitable to perform the analysis process and is called a tube or a palette, smaller than the sample container. In this case, the (child) sample pipetted into the analysis-dedicated sample container is subjected to process steps required for making the analysis, such as mixing with a reagent and a reaction, and then analyzed to obtain an analysis result.
In the known analyzer, the ID carrier is provided only on the sample container. The reason is that most of ID carriers currently used are in the form of a read-only barcode. Because a mechanism for preparing and attaching barcodes requires a considerable installation area, it is usual to employ a device dedicated for preparing barcodes and attaching them to individual sample containers. On the other hand, the sample is pipetted into the analysis-dedicated sample container by using a sample pipetting mechanism provided in the analyzer. To prepare barcodes and attach them to individual analysis-dedicated sample containers, therefore, the mechanism for preparing and attaching barcodes must be provided for each analyzer. This is however practically difficult to realize due to an increase of the cost.
For that reason, hitherto, the ID of the child sample pipetted from the parent sample is stored in correspondence to the position in each analyzer where the sample container containing the child sample is located. Then, each analyzer merges an analyzed result with the sample ID and reports the analysis result to a host computer.
Such a construction of the known analyzer is described in, e.g., Patent Reference 1; JP,B 2-16875.