Hawker Charles D, Roberts William L, DaSilva Antonio, Stam Gordon D, Owen William E, Curtis DeVirl, Choi Byung-Sang, Ring Terry A
ARUP Laboratories, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA.
Clin Chem. 2007 Dec;53(12):2209-11. doi: 10.1373/clinchem.2007.094185. Epub 2007 Sep 21.
Working toward a goal of total laboratory automation, we are automating manual activities in our highest volume laboratory section. Because half of all specimens arriving in this laboratory section are frozen, we began by developing an automated workcell for thawing frozen specimens and mixing the thawed specimens to remove concentration gradients resulting from freezing and thawing.
We developed an initial robotic workcell that removed specimens from the transport system's conveyor, blew high-velocity room temperature air at the tubes, mixed them, and replaced them on the conveyor. Aliquots of citrated plasma were frozen with thermocouples immersed in the tubes, and thawing times and temperatures were monitored. Completeness of mixing of thawed specimens was studied by careful removal of small aliquots from the uppermost layer of the upright tubes without disturbing tube contents and analysis of total protein and electrolytes.
High velocity ambient air aimed directly at tubes ranging from 12 x 75 to 16 x 100 mm brought specimens to room temperature in a maximum of 23 min. Adequate mixing of the specimens by the workcell's robot required only 2 approximate 126 degrees movements from an upright starting point, a surprising observation, because laboratorians are usually trained to mix 10 or 20 times. We also observed that, in a frozen overfilled tube, resulting analyte concentrations will be lower because more concentrated solutes leak from the tube.
A high-throughput, automated thawing and mixing workcell was successfully built, validated, and installed on our automated transport and sorting system.
为实现实验室完全自动化的目标，我们正在对最高通量的实验室区域的手工操作进行自动化。由于送到该实验室区域的所有标本中有一半是冷冻的，我们首先开发了一个自动化工作单元，用于解冻冷冻标本并混合解冻后的标本，以消除冷冻和解冻产生的浓度梯度。
我们开发了一个初始的机器人工作单元，它从运输系统的传送带上取出标本，向试管吹送高速室温空气，进行混合，然后将其放回传送带上。将含有柠檬酸盐的血浆等分试样用浸入试管中的热电偶冷冻，并监测解冻时间和温度。通过小心地从直立试管的最上层取出小份试样而不扰动试管内容物，并分析总蛋白和电解质，研究解冻后标本的混合完整性。
将高速环境空气直接吹向尺寸范围为12×75至16×100毫米的试管，最多23分钟就能使标本达到室温。工作单元的机器人对标本进行充分混合只需从直立起始点进行约2次126度的移动，这一观察结果令人惊讶，因为实验室技术人员通常被训练要混合10次或20次。我们还观察到，在冷冻过度填充的试管中，最终分析物浓度会较低，因为更多浓缩溶质会从试管中泄漏出来。
一个高通量、自动化的解冻和混合工作单元已成功构建、验证并安装在我们的自动化运输和分拣系统上。
