BIOLOGICAL CELL ANALYZING SYSTEM

摘要

A biological cell analyzing system which is capable of automatically categorizing unstained biological cells as normal or non-normal. The cells are made to flow through a transparent tube in single file and are scanned with a mixture of ultra-violet and visible light. The cytoplasm and nucleus of each cell absorb ultra-violet radiation to different degrees, and the emergent light signal, as modulated by the scanned cells, is detected, amplified, and extended to a data processor which logically analyzes the signal from each cell on a real-time basis. The visible light signal is subtracted from the ultraviolet light signal to improve the signal/noise ratio of the latter, and to automatically cancel out non-biological debris. A number of acceptance tests are electronically performed on each cell, and if any of the tests is failed the cell is categorized as non-normal. Ambiguous conditions, resulting for example from the clumping of cells, are identified and separately counted. The system can process up to several thousand cells from a single sample during a one-minute run.