A method for determining a concentration of a chemical of interest in a recirculating analyte system includes the steps of selecting a first indicator threshold, measuring the flow rate of the recirculating analyte system, controllably adding a known amount of reagent to the recirculating analyte system at an known flow rate, repetitively measuring an indicator of the recirculating analyte system downstream from the addition of the reagent, and computing the concentration of the chemical of interest of the recirculating analyte system when the indicator measurement crosses the indicator threshold.

As a standard solution for evaluating a scattered light measuring optical system mounted on an automated analyzer, a standard solution containing an insoluble carrier at a concentration, at which transmittance is in a range of 10% to 50%, is used, and a light quantity of a light source is adjusted such that a scattered light detector outputs a predetermined value.

The specimen analysis apparatus of the present invention comprises a measuring part; a display part; and a control part. The control part controls the measuring parts, displays on the display part an alarm display region displaying an alarm of a failure occurred in the measuring part, and a recovery operation display region displaying a recovery operation to cancel the alarm displayed in the alarm display region, and, when multiple alarms have occurred, displays multiple recovery operations to cancel them in the order of from higher priority to lower priority.

The present invention is provided with a reagent disc on which a plurality of reagent containers each containing therein a reagent to be used for specimen analysis are loaded; a reagent loader that loads a reagent from the outside onto the reagent disc and that carries a reagent to the outside; a display unit that displays the reagents in the plurality of reagent containers arranged on the reagent disc, so as to be paired with corresponding analysis items for which the reagents are used; and a control unit that causes the reagent loader to simultaneously carry, to the outside of the reagent disc, a reagent which is selected, on the display unit, by an operation device used for an operation input from an operator instructing the reagent loader to take out the reagent and simultaneously carry a reagent which is to be used for a different analysis item to be performed simultaneously with the analysis item for the selected reagent. Thus, when a reagent is taken out or loaded, acts of mistaking the reagent or failing to load the reagent can be suppressed.

A system and method for dispense characterization is disclosed. According to particular embodiments of the dispense characterization system and method, volumes of dispensed liquids can be determined. In more particular embodiments, additional characteristics and combinations of characteristics of a liquid dispensing event can be determined. Examples of additional characteristics that can be determined include the shape of the dispensing event, the velocity of the dispensing event, and the trajectory of the dispensing event. The dispense characterization system and method can be employed in automated biological sample analysis systems, and are particularly suited for monitoring liquid reagent dispensing events that deliver liquid reagents to a surface of a microscope slide holding a biological sample.

A reagent management system is disclosed comprising a reagent container section for receiving reagent containers and a reagent reconstitution device for reconstituting dry, or lyophilized, reagents or concentrated reagents in reagent containers in order to carry out in-vitro diagnostic tests with the reconstituted reagents. A controller is programmed to instruct the reagent reconstitution device to automatically reconstitute an initial volume of a selected reagent type in reagent containers. The initial volume is calculated based on an open container stability time (OCS) of the reconstituted reagent type for each reagent container and on a number of tests to be carried out within the OCS of the reconstituted reagent type. A reagent container for use by the reagent management system and methods of automatically reconstituting a dry, or lyophilized reagent, or a concentrated liquid reagent in a reagent container to carry out an in-vitro diagnostic test with the reagent are disclosed.

A two-dimensional code is attached to a location of a reagent storage unit which is visually recognizable from the outside, and a coordinate position of the two-dimensional code in a coordinate system of the two-dimensional code and coordinate information of an installation position of a reagent bottle are held. After that, an image of the two-dimensional code is captured by a portable terminal so that a coordinate system of an image capture unit of the portable terminal is converted into the coordinate system of the two-dimensional code using AR technology. The coordinate information of the installation position of the reagent bottle in the coordinate system of the two-dimensional code is regarded as positional coordinates in the captured image on the basis of the conversion, thereby ascertaining the position of the reagent bottle on the captured image and displaying the ascertained position on a display unit.

A high-throughput automatic analyzer integrates a biochemical analysis section and a blood coagulation analysis section. The analyzer is capable of achieving a reduction in size, system cost, and lifecycle cost. The automatic analyzer includes: a reaction disk; a first reagent dispensing mechanism that dispenses a reagent to reaction cells on the reaction disk; a photometer that irradiates a reaction solution in the reaction cell with light; a reaction cell cleaning mechanism; a reaction vessel supply unit that supplies a disposable reaction vessel for mixing and reacting a sample and a reagent with each other; a second reagent dispensing mechanism that dispenses a reagent to the disposable reaction vessel; a blood coagulation time measuring section that irradiates a reaction solution in the disposable reaction vessel with light to detect transmitted or scattered light; and a sample dispensing mechanism that dispenses a sample to the reaction cell and the disposable reaction vessel.

A method and system for replenishing refrigerated consumables by a mobile connected autonomous refrigerator includes receiving a notification triggered by a laboratory instrument that a refrigerated consumable used by the laboratory instrument is depleted; autonomously navigating to a refrigerated storage; retrieving the refrigerated consumable and placing it in the mobile refrigerated unit; autonomously moving to the laboratory instrument that triggered the notification; and alerting an operator to retrieve the refrigerated consumable from mobile refrigerated unit and load it into the laboratory instrument.

A reagent container transfer mechanism transfers a reagent container selected from among reagent containers stored in a second reagent container storage section to a first reagent container storage section. A controller controls the reagent container transfer mechanism to transfer a reagent container from a second reagent container storage section to the first reagent container storage section on the basis of a predetermined priority condition. The predetermined priority condition is one of a reagent provided with an effective calibration curve result, a number of remaining tests, and an expiration date of a reagent.