US 12,104,992 B2
Exfoliative cell processing device
Wook Bin Im, Seongnam-Si (KR); Jae Joon Lee, Suwon-si (KR); and Moo Seong Shin, Seoul (KR)
Assigned to BIODYNE CO., LTD., Seoul (KR)
Appl. No. 17/274,108
Filed by BIODYNE CO., LTD., Gyeonggi-do (KR)
PCT Filed Jul. 31, 2019, PCT No. PCT/KR2019/009581
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 5, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/050503, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 12, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 10-2018-0107442 (KR), filed on Sep. 8, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0333176 A1, Oct. 28, 2021
Int. Cl. G01N 1/28 (2006.01); G01N 1/40 (2006.01); G01N 35/00 (2006.01)
CPC G01N 1/2813 (2013.01) [G01N 1/4077 (2013.01); G01N 35/00029 (2013.01); G01N 2001/4088 (2013.01); G01N 2035/00138 (2013.01); G01N 2035/00168 (2013.01)] 5 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An exfoliative cell processing device, comprising:
a base (110);
a support wall (120) being arranged in an erected state on the upper surface of the base;
a container support member (131) mounted on the upper surface of the base;
a container member which contains specimen and has an opened upper part mounted on the upper surface of the container support member (131);
a specimen collector (140) moving in and out of the container member in a vertical direction along the longitudinal direction of the support wall so as to collect exfoliative cells and liquid medium of the container member, wherein the container member is in a state of being gripped by the container support member;
a suction guide block (150) moving along the wall of the support wall gripping the specimen collector and interfacing the specimen collector so as to suction the exfoliative cells and liquid medium out of the container member;
a suction pump (160) for providing suction force to the specimen collector through the suction guide block, wherein the specimen collector is inserted inside the container member and suctions the exfoliative cells and liquid medium out of the container member by the suction force, and wherein the suction pump is operated by control of the pump control unit; and
a cell smear slide (170) being disposed on a side of the container support member and moving left and right together with the container support member, wherein when a downward stroke is applied onto the specimen collector while the cell smear slide is disposed vertically under the specimen collector, the cell smear slide comes into contact with the lower surface of the specimen collector so as to let the exfoliative cells of the lower surface of the specimen collector be attached onto the upper surface of the cell smear slide;
wherein the suction guide block (150) comprises:
a user operation block (151) being formed in a block shape so as to move along the wall of the support wall by a user's grip operation;
a support plate (152) being mounted on the lower surface of the user operation block;
a suction holder member (153) sequentially passing through the support plate and the user operation block to be fitted in the vertical direction and transferring the suction force by the suction pump to the specimen collector as the open upper portion of the specimen collector is inserted into the lower portion of the suction holder member; and
an O-ring (154) being disposed to surround the outer wall of the suction holder member so that the inner wall of the specimen collector and the outer wall of the suction holder member are maintained in close contact with each other when the specimen collector is inserted into the suction holder member, and
wherein the suction guide block (150) further comprises:
a downward ejector (155) being disposed on the lower surface of the support plate with its central portion penetrating through the suction holder member, wherein the downward ejector separates the specimen collector out of the suction holder member when moving downward along the outer surface of the suction holder member, and then moves upward along the outer surface of the suction holder member by force created by the springs in the moving rod;
a plurality of moving rods (156) passing through the support plate so as to have their lower ends be connected to the downward ejector, wherein the moving rods stroke the downward ejector to downward direction when user operation of downward stroke is applied;
a stroke handle (157) being arranged to connect the plurality of moving rods in the upper part of the support plate, and transferring a downward external force by a user operation to the plurality of moving rods so as to let the moving rods to be stroked in a downward direction; and
a spring being fitted in each of the moving rods between the stroke handle and the support plate and forming tensile force extending along the longitudinal direction of the moving rod so that the upper surface of the downward ejector comes in contact with the lower surface of the support plate.