Microorganism culture system and method

Abstract

The invention provides a microorganism culture system and method.The culture system is used for culturing a to-be-detected object and at least detecting whether microorganisms exist in the to-be-detected object or not, the culture system comprises a rotary culture detection mechanism, and the rotary culture detection mechanism comprises a rotary culture roller and a first driving unit; a plurality of bottle sleeves used for loading culture bottles are arranged on the rotary culture roller, the bottle sleeves are arranged in the circumferential direction of the rotary culture roller, and the first driving unit is used for driving the rotary culture roller to rotate, so that the bottle sleeves rotate in the circumferential direction of the central axis of the rotary culture roller; the axis of the rotary culture roller is inclined, and the included angle between the axis of the bottle sleeve and the axis of the rotary culture roller is smaller than 90 degrees, so that when the bottle sleeve circumferentially rotates along the axis of the rotary culture roller, the bottle sleeve is not in the same plane, but the angle between the bottle sleeve and the horizontal direction is changed, and blood and culture liquid in the culture bottle can be fully mixed. And the culture effect of the culture bottle is ensured.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application belongs to the technical field of culture apparatus, in particular relates to a microorganism culture system and method. BACKGROUND

[0002] At present, the mainstream blood culture apparatus on the market all adopts manual code scanning and bottle loading, each culture hole position is provided with a detection unit, when the culture apparatus is used, the culture bottle is placed into the culture hole for detection / culture after manual code scanning, and the culture bottle is manually taken out after the detection / culture is completed.

[0003] Manual code scanning and bottle loading and manual bottle taking out are complex in operation process, and errors are prone to occur when a plurality of culture bottles are loaded at one time, which may cause the culture information to be unmatched with the actual case. Meanwhile, the culture hole position is provided with a detection unit, which greatly increases the cost of the whole machine, and it is extremely inconvenient to unload the completed culture bottle after the blood culture apparatus completes the culture, and even unexpected situations such as incorrect unloading of the culture bottle may occur.

[0004] In addition, when the existing apparatus is used for blood culture, the accommodation position of the blood culture bottle is generally arranged in an array type, and the array type has requirements for the space for loading and unloading, which limits the capacity of the apparatus. There are also apparatuses in which the accommodation position of the blood culture bottle is arranged in a rotary disc type to increase the capacity of the apparatus, but the detection effect of the apparatus in this type of arrangement is not ideal, and even false negatives may occur. SUMMARY

[0005] In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, the purpose of the present application is to provide a microorganism culture system and method, which is used to solve the problem that the liquid in the culture bottle cannot be fully mixed when the blood culture apparatus is used.

[0006] To achieve the above-mentioned purposes and other related purposes, the technical scheme of the present application is as follows:

[0007] A microorganism culture system for culturing and detecting at least whether microorganisms exist in a to-be-tested object, comprising:

[0008] A rotating culture and detection mechanism, the rotating culture and detection mechanism comprises a rotating culture drum and a first driving unit, a plurality of bottle sleeves for loading culture bottles are arranged on the rotating culture drum, the bottle sleeves are arranged circumferentially along the central axis of the rotating culture drum, and the first driving unit is used to drive the rotating culture drum to rotate, so that the bottle sleeves rotate circumferentially along the central axis of the rotating culture drum; the central axis of the rotating culture drum is inclined, and the central axis of the bottle sleeve and the central axis of the rotating culture drum form an angle less than 90°, so that when the bottle sleeve rotates circumferentially along the central axis of the rotating culture drum, the angle between the central axis of the bottle sleeve and the horizontal plane changes;

[0009] a detector for detecting the growth of microorganisms in the culture bottle and outputting a detection signal for determining the presence or absence of microorganisms.

[0010] Optionally, when the bottle sleeve is at the lowest point during rotation of the rotating culture drum, the angle between the central axis of the bottle sleeve and the horizontal direction is less than 15°, and / or the opening of the bottle sleeve faces upward, and / or the central axis of the bottle sleeve is horizontal.

[0011] Optionally, the detector is located at the bottom of the bottle sleeve; one detector is provided at the same center height of the bottle sleeve on the rotating culture drum, or one detector is provided at the bottom of each bottle sleeve.

[0012] Optionally, the method further comprises:

[0013] an automatic sample feeding mechanism for transporting the blood culture bottle to a designated loading position;

[0014] an automatic loading and unloading mechanism having a gripper and a gripper moving unit for moving the gripper, the gripper being used to transport the culture bottle at the designated loading position into the rotating culture drum or to transport the culture bottle in the rotating culture drum to a designated unloading position.

[0015] Optionally, the rotating culture detection mechanism further comprises an inclined base and a shaking support, the rotating culture drum is inclinedly arranged on the inclined base, the upper end of the rotating culture drum is rotationally arranged with an end plate, the shaking support is fixedly connected with the end plate, and a motor support for arranging a first driving unit is arranged on the inclined base.

[0016] Optionally, the rotating culture detection mechanism has a reading station for reading the culture bottle signal, a bottle feeding station for feeding the culture bottle, and an unloading station for unloading the culture bottle, the reading station is located at the highest bottle sleeve in a circle of bottle sleeves at the same center height on the rotating culture drum, and the bottle feeding station and the unloading station are both located at the lowest bottle sleeve in a circle of bottle sleeves at the same center height on the rotating culture drum.

[0017] Optionally, the method further comprises a culture bottle, the culture bottle comprising a culture bottle body and an embedded structure; the culture bottle body is used to contain nutrient solution, the culture bottle body has a bottle opening, and a bottle opening plug is arranged at the bottle opening to seal the culture bottle body; the embedded structure is located inside the culture bottle body and has a containing part for containing adsorbents and a leakage prevention part for preventing the adsorbents from directly contacting the nutrient solution; the leakage prevention part is in communication with the culture bottle body, so that the adsorbents can enter the culture bottle body through the leakage prevention part and mix with the nutrient solution.

[0018] Optionally, the inner diameter of the anti-leakage part is smaller than the containing part, and / or the anti-leakage part has a blocking part for blocking the adsorbent of the containing part.

[0019] In another aspect, the present application provides a microbial culture method, which comprises the following steps: adding a sample to be cultured into a culture bottle with a nutrient solution;

[0020] Placing the culture bottle into a microbial culture system for culture;

[0021] Driving the culture bottle to rotate during the culture process to change the angle with the horizontal plane, and rotating for at least two weeks;

[0022] Periodically collecting data of the culture bottle during the rotation process, and ensuring that the culture bottle is at a target angle during data collection;

[0023] The microbial culture system acquires the collected data and analyzes whether there is microbial growth in the sample to be cultured; if yes, a positive signal is released; if no, and the culture time of the sample to be cultured reaches a target time, a negative signal is released.

[0024] Optionally, in the step of periodically collecting data of the culture bottle during the rotation process, the step of periodically collecting data of the culture bottle during the rotation process,

[0025] The period of data collection is an integer multiple of the rotation period of the culture bottle, and is at least 10 times.

[0026] Optionally, the method further comprises the following steps:

[0027] If a positive signal is released, the microbial culture system takes out the corresponding culture bottle to a designated position or keeps the corresponding culture bottle in the microbial culture system for continuous culture according to the user's selection; if a negative signal is released, the microbial culture system takes out the culture bottle releasing the negative signal to a designated position.

[0028] The applicant found that in the existing turntable type layout instrument, the mixing of the liquid in the culture bottle mainly relies on the rotation of the turntable, which leads to the possibility that the blood and the nutrient solution in the culture bottle cannot be fully mixed, which affects the culture effect of the blood and the final culture result of the culture bottle. Uneven mixing will affect the time of blood culture report positive (i.e. identifying microorganisms), and if microorganisms are not identified within the expected time, false positives will occur. In addition, if there is a physical isolation structure in the culture bottle, this structure will affect the flow of the internal liquid, and the requirement for mixing of such culture bottles is higher.

[0029] The application tilts the rotating culture roller, compared with the existing horizontal placement method, so that the mixed liquid in the culture bottle can be greatly shaken due to gravity, and the mixing is more sufficient; on this basis, the angle between the central axis of the bottle sleeve and the central axis of the rotating culture roller is less than 90°, so that the liquid in the culture bottle forms a biased vortex, and the flow is more similar to a vortex, further improving the mixing effect; at the same time, this angle can also avoid the safety hazard caused by the bottle mouth of the culture bottle facing downward, and at the same time, this angle makes the culture bottle have a larger angle change while ensuring that the bottle mouth is not downward, which can improve the mixing effect and also bring more reasonable choices to the loading and unloading station and the detection station. The loading and unloading station can be arranged at the horizontal position of the culture bottle, and only the movement of the Z-axis and the Y-axis can realize the loading and unloading of the culture bottle; the detection signal will be affected by the liquid level, especially when the nutrient liquid is less, the scheme provides a larger selection range, so that the detection station can be arranged at a relatively vertical position of the culture bottle.

[0030] As described above, in the present application, the culture bottle to be cultured is placed and inserted into the bottle sleeve, after the culture bottles are inserted into the bottle sleeves on the rotating culture roller, the rotating culture detection mechanism is driven to rotate by the first driving unit to detect the culture bottles, the rotating culture roller can improve the throughput (relative to the array type), and the central axis of the rotating culture roller is inclined so that the culture bottles can shake under the action of gravity during rotation, and the culture bottles change the angle with the horizontal direction during rotation along the rotating culture roller, which makes the blood and nutrient liquid in the culture bottles fully mixed and incubated; especially for the culture bottles with multiple nutrient liquids and physical isolation, the multiple culture liquids and blood can be fully mixed to ensure the effect of the culture bottles. In addition, during the rotation of the culture bottles with the rotating culture roller, the culture bottles can be detected after rotating to the specified position, and the detection results of the culture bottles can be prompted by the system after detection, which is convenient for subsequent manual removal of the culture bottles. Compared with the prior art, the microorganism culture system in the present scheme can fully mix the blood and culture liquid in the culture bottle to ensure the culture effect of the culture bottle. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0031] Figure 1 A structure diagram of a microorganism culture system according to an example of the present application;

[0032] Figure 2 A structure diagram of a rotating culture detection mechanism in a microorganism culture system according to an example of the present application;

[0033] Figure 3 A sectional view of a rotating culture detection mechanism in a microorganism culture system according to an example of the present application;

[0034] Figure 4 Another angle sectional view of the rotating culture detection mechanism in a microbial culture system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0035] Figure 5 For Figure 4 An enlarged view of A in FIG. 4;

[0036] Figure 6 Structure diagram of the automatic sampling mechanism in a microbial culture system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0037] Figure 7 Structure diagram of the automatic loading and unloading mechanism in a microbial culture system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] Figure 8 Structure diagram of a culture bottle according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0039] Explanation of reference numerals in the drawings in the embodiments includes:

[0040] Rotating culture detection mechanism 10, tilting base 11, shaking support 12, rotating culture drum 13, rotating shaft 131, shaft end plate 132, culture plate 133, bottle sleeve 134, spring sheet 135, first stepper motor 14, motor support 141, first synchronous pulley 15, thin-wall bearing 16, bearing ring 161, transmission disc 17, ball bearing 18, detector 19, detector support 191,

[0041] Automatic sampling mechanism 20, conveying belt 21, guide plate 22, guide surface 221, groove 222, guide roller 223, conveying belt baffle 23, second stepper motor 24, motor base 25, belt shaft 26, belt shaft base 261, coupling 27,

[0042] Automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30, multi-axis moving unit, support frame 31, Y-axis bottom plate 32, Y-axis guide rail 33, Y-axis sliding block 331, Z-axis bottom plate 34, Z-axis guide rail 35, Z-axis sliding block 351, linear guide shaft 36, clamping jaw 37, speed reduction motor 371, servo motor 38, third synchronous belt 39, third synchronous pulley 391, pulley tensioning block 392,

[0043] Positive bottle taking position 40, negative bottle container 50, whole machine bottom plate 60,

[0044] Culture bottle body 70, bottle mouth 71, bottle mouth plug 72, inlaid structure 73, leakage prevention part 731, connecting part 732, communication hole 733, containing part 734. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0045] In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a more thorough understanding of the present application. However, it will be apparent to one of skill in the art that the present application can be practiced without one or more of these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in order to avoid obscuring the present application. Only the preferred embodiments of the application and but a few examples of its versatility are shown and described in the present disclosure. It is to be understood that the application is not limited in scope to the embodiments disclosed. Personal having ordinary skill in the art will recognize that changes can be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and the scope of the application. Throughout the specification, like drawing reference numerals will be understood to refer to like parts throughout the specification and the claims.

[0046] It is to be understood that the application can assume various alternative forms of embodiment, and it is accordingly not to be limited by the examples set forth herein. Rather, the embodiments are provided for thorough and complete disclosure of the present application and are fully presented by way of example as completely and as completely as possible in order to convey the scope of the application to others skilled in the art. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to the same components throughout the several views.

[0047] The specific structure of the microbial culture system described in the present embodiment is described in conjunction with Figures 1 to 7 The microbial culture system is used for culturing and detecting at least whether microorganisms exist in a test object, and includes a rotating culture and detection mechanism 10 and a detector 19, the structure of which is described below.

[0048] The rotating culture and detection mechanism 10 includes a rotating culture drum 13 and a first driving unit, the rotating culture drum 13 is provided with a plurality of bottle sleeves 134 for loading culture bottles, the bottle sleeves 134 are arranged circumferentially along the central axis of the rotating culture drum 13, and the first driving unit is used to drive the rotating culture drum 13 to rotate, so that the bottle sleeves 134 rotate circumferentially along the central axis of the rotating culture drum 13.

[0049] The central axis of the rotating culture drum 13 is inclined, and the central axis of the bottle sleeve 134 and the central axis of the rotating culture drum 13 form an angle less than 90°, so that when the bottle sleeve 134 rotates circumferentially along the central axis of the rotating culture drum 13, it is not in a plane, that is, the angle between the central axis of the bottle sleeve 134 and the horizontal plane changes in this process. For example, Figure 4 In the specific structure of the rotating culture drum 13, the central axis of the rotating culture drum 13 is inclined, so that the angle between the central axis of the rotating culture drum 13 and the horizontal plane is a (a < 90°), at this time, the angle between the central axis of the bottle sleeve 134 and the central axis of the rotating culture drum 13 is also a, at this time, the central axis of the rightmost bottle sleeve 134 is horizontal, and the central axis of the leftmost bottle sleeve 134 forms an angle of 90°-2a with the horizontal plane. Of course, the angle between the central axis of the bottle sleeve 134 and the central axis of the rotating culture drum 13 can also be other angles, and the above angles are only exemplary descriptions.

[0050] The detector 19 is used to detect the growth of microorganisms in the culture bottle, and at least outputs a detection signal for judging whether microorganisms exist. Specifically, for example, Figure 5In the specific embodiment, the detector 19 is located at the bottom of the bottle sleeve 134, the bottom of the culture bottle has a sensing film, the sensing film is separated from the liquid culture medium by a film that can selectively permeate CO2, CO2 can replace hydrogen ions and diffuse through the film to acidify the sensor and cause the sensor to change color. After the clinical sample is inoculated into the culture bottle, if there are living microorganisms, CO2 is generated by growth and metabolism in the culture medium, which causes a change in the reflected light signal on the monitoring system, and the instrument determines whether microorganisms grow in the culture bottle by monitoring the change in the light signal of the sensor.

[0051] The first driving unit is mainly used for driving the rotating culture drum 13. According to the structure of the system, the rotating speed of the rotating culture drum 13 and the control requirements, the first driving unit can be designed conventionally, for example, a motor and a gear set are used to drive and control the rotation of the rotating culture drum 13. In the present scheme, the first driving unit is specifically provided with a first stepper motor 14. A rotating shaft 131 is arranged at the center of the rotating culture drum 13. First synchronous wheels 15 are arranged on the rotating shaft 131 and the output shaft of the first stepper motor 14. First synchronous belts are arranged outside the first synchronous wheels 15. The first synchronous wheels 15 are driven to rotate by the output shaft of the first stepper motor 14. The first synchronous belts drive the first synchronous wheels 15 on the rotating shaft 131 to rotate, so that the rotating shaft 131 rotates, and the rotating culture drum 13 rotates around the center.

[0052] In the present application, the culture bottle to be cultured is placed in the bottle sleeve 134. After the culture bottles are inserted into the bottle sleeves of the rotating culture drum 13, the rotating culture detection mechanism 10 drives the rotating culture drum 13 to rotate by the first driving unit to detect the culture bottles. The rotating culture drum 13 can improve the flux (relative to the array type). The central axis of the rotating culture drum 13 is inclined, so that the culture bottles can shake under the action of gravity during rotation. At the same time, the culture bottles change the angle with the horizontal direction during rotation along the rotating culture drum 13, which makes the blood and nutrient solution in the culture bottles fully mixed and incubated. Especially for culture bottles with multiple nutrient solutions and physical isolation, the multiple culture solutions and blood can be fully mixed to ensure the effect of the culture bottles. In addition, the culture bottles can be detected after rotating to the specified position during the rotation of the culture bottles along the rotating culture drum 13. After detection, the system can prompt the detection results of the culture bottles, which is convenient for subsequent manual removal of the culture bottles.

[0053] In an example, the culture system is used, and every 20 seconds, the culture bottle is rotated for one round, and every 10 minutes, the data is collected. If the culture bottle is reported negative after 5 days, the culture bottle is taken out and thrown into the negative bottle container 50. For the culture bottle reported positive within 5 days, the positive culture bottle is reported, and the positive culture bottle is placed in a position convenient for the user to take away.

[0054] Table 1

[0055]

[0056] Experiments are conducted by using the culture system, as shown in Table 1 above. The control group is the existing rotating disc structure, and the rotating culture cylinder is not inclined, and the blood culture bottle is placed in the rotating culture cylinder horizontally. It can be seen that the closed incubation structure of the culture system with the specific angle annular mixing and the fixed culture bottle detection position has the advantages of avoiding environmental temperature disturbance, fixed bottle page detection position, and sufficient mixing compared with the existing rotating disc structure, and the average positive reporting time is about 4 hours faster.

[0057] In some embodiments, when the bottle sleeve 134 is at the lowest point during the rotation of the rotating culture drum 13, the angle between the central axis of the bottle sleeve 134 and the horizontal direction is less than 15°, and the opening of the bottle sleeve 134 is upward. Preferably, the central axis of the bottle sleeve 134 is horizontal at this time. In the subsequent embodiments, the central axis is horizontal. The opening is upward or horizontal at the lowest point, which can avoid the culture bottle from sliding out of the opening of the bottle sleeve 134 during the use of the culture system. The horizontal opening is also beneficial for the loading and unloading of the culture bottle, which will be described in detail later.

[0058] In some embodiments, the bottle sleeve 134 at the same center height on the rotating culture drum 13 is correspondingly provided with a detector 19. For example, Figure 5 In some embodiments, each circle of bottle sleeves 134 is correspondingly provided with a detector 19, and all the detectors 19 are located in a column along the axial direction of the rotating culture drum 13, so that the one-to-one correspondence between the bottle sleeve 134 and the detector 19 can be broken, and the cost can be saved. At the same time, since the detection is carried out at a fixed position (angle), the result deviation caused by different angles can be avoided. Of course, each bottle sleeve is provided with a detector at the bottom, which can also meet the requirements, and the reliability is higher.

[0059] In some embodiments, as shown in Figure 8 The culture bottle includes a culture bottle body 70 and an embedded structure 73. The culture bottle body 70 is used to hold nutrient solution, and the culture bottle body 70 is provided with a bottle opening 71. The bottle opening 71 is provided with a bottle opening plug 72 for sealing the culture bottle body 70.

[0060] The embedded structure 73 is located inside the culture bottle body 70, has a containing part 734 for containing the adsorbent, and a leakage prevention part 731 for preventing the adsorbent from directly contacting the nutrient solution; the leakage prevention part 731 is in communication with the culture bottle body 70, so that the adsorbent can enter the culture bottle body 70 through the leakage prevention part 731 and mix with the nutrient solution.

[0061] The inner diameter of the leakage prevention part 731 is smaller than that of the containing part 734, and the containing part 734 contains the adsorbent, which is used to adsorb interfering substances such as antibiotics in the mixed liquid in the bottle body, and can be a liquid or a solid such as resin or activated carbon.

[0062] The embedded structure 73 also includes a connecting part 732 connected to the culture bottle body or the bottle mouth plug 72. The connecting part 732 is provided with a communication hole 733 for communicating the embedded structure 73 with the culture bottle body 70, and the leakage prevention part 731 is located between the connecting part 732 and the containing part 734.

[0063] The applicant finds that in the blood culture process, most of the culture targets are the blood of patients, and the patients are likely to have used antibiotics, and the presence of antibiotics will affect the effect of blood culture. Therefore, in addition to adding the culture medium (nutrient solution) in the culture bottle, the adsorbent (resin) for adsorbing antibiotics also needs to be added; the present application also considers that in the actual use scenario, the culture medium is usually filled into the culture bottle during production, which can facilitate sales or also facilitate use. If the adsorbent also needs to be added, it is necessary to choose to fill the culture medium and the adsorbent into the culture bottle.

[0064] Generally speaking, the above scheme is not wrong, but the research of the present technical scheme finds that after the production of the culture bottle is completed (before use), the resin for adsorbing antibiotics and the nutrient solution in the culture bottle are mixed together and in contact, which will have some adverse effects on the subsequent use of the culture bottle. For example: the resin will absorb a certain amount of nutrient components in the nutrient solution, resulting in a decrease in the nutrient components in the nutrient solution, which will reduce the ability of the culture bottle to culture bacteria in subsequent use of the culture bottle; at the same time, after the resin adsorbs the nutrient components, the ability to adsorb antibiotics will decrease, and in the process of using the culture bottle to culture the patient's body fluid, if the patient's body fluid contains antibiotics, the ability of the culture bottle to culture bacteria will be greatly reduced.

[0065] The present embodiment realizes the physical isolation of the resin and the nutrient solution by containing the nutrient solution in the culture bottle body 70 and containing the resin in the containing part 734 placed inside the culture bottle. The anti-leak part 731 can prevent the resin from leaking from the containing part 734 during the overturning and vibration impact of the culture bottle before use, transportation and storage, which ensures that the resin and the nutrient solution do not come into contact before the culture bottle is used, and avoids the problems of the reduction of the nutrient components in the nutrient solution and the decrease of the bacterial capacity of the culture bottle caused by the contact between the resin and the nutrient solution.

[0066] The adsorbent can mix with the nutrient solution through the communication hole 733 to realize the adsorption effect when the culture bottle is used. However, due to the existence of the embedded structure 73, it is more difficult for the adsorbent and the nutrient solution to mix fully. The step mode of the rotating culture drum of the present patent application improves the mixing effect to meet the mixing requirements.

[0067] The anti-leak part 731 of the present embodiment communicates with the culture bottle body 70 through the connecting hole on the connecting part 732. Of course, other ways can also be used, such as connecting the connecting part 732 at any position of the culture bottle body 70 or the bottle mouth plug 72. During transportation, the anti-leak part 731 itself or the blocking part blocks the adsorbent. Before or at the beginning of the culture, external force is used to make the adsorbent pass through the anti-leak part 731 and enter the culture bottle body 70. For example, if there is no blocking part, the culture bottle can be inverted. If there is a blocking part, external force (manual or using liquid buoyancy or other force) is used to make the blocking part separate from the anti-leak part 731.

[0068] In some embodiments, further comprising:

[0069] The automatic sample injection mechanism 20 is used to transport the blood culture bottle to the designated loading position.

[0070] The automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30 has a clamping jaw 37 and a clamping jaw moving unit for moving the clamping jaw 37. The clamping jaw 37 is used to transport the culture bottle at the designated loading position to the rotating culture drum 13 or transport the culture bottle in the rotating culture drum 13 to the designated unloading position.

[0071] The clamping jaw moving unit can be connected to a speed reducer motor 371 for driving the clamping jaw 37 to rotate, so as to facilitate the grasping of the culture bottle.

[0072] In use, the full-automatic microbial culture system in the scheme will transport the culture bottle to be cultured to the designated loading position through the automatic sampling mechanism 20, move the culture bottle from the designated loading position to the rotating culture drum by the clamping jaw 37 of the automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30, drive the rotating culture detection mechanism 10 to rotate by the first driving unit and detect the culture bottle during the rotation, take out the culture bottle from the rotating culture drum 13 again by the clamping jaw 37 of the automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30, and place it to the designated unloading position according to the detection result, so as to facilitate the subsequent manual removal of the culture bottle. The designated loading position and the designated unloading position are designated positions on the culture system, which can be reasonably arranged according to the overall structure of the culture system.

[0073] In some embodiments, the rotating culture detection mechanism 10 further comprises an inclined base 11 and a uniform shaking support 12, the rotating culture drum 13 is inclinedly arranged on the inclined base 11, the upper end of the rotating culture drum 13 is rotationally provided with an axle end plate 132, the uniform shaking support 12 is fixedly connected with the axle end plate 132, and the inclined base 11 is provided with a motor support 141 for arranging the first driving unit.

[0074] In the specific implementation process, as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3 、 Figure 4 , the inclined base 11 can make the rotating culture drum 13 be inclinedly arranged, so as to adjust the position of the culture bottle during the rotation of the rotating culture drum 13. In order to make the rotating culture drum 13 rotate stably in the inclined state, the upper end of the rotating culture drum 13 is supported and limited by the uniform shaking support 12 and the axle end plate 132. Specifically, the thin-wall bearing 16 is arranged between the axle end plate 132 and the rotating culture drum 13, the inner ring of the thin-wall bearing 16 is provided with a bearing ring 161 for support, and the lower end of the rotating culture drum 13 is provided with a transmission disc 17 for connecting the rotating culture drum 13 and the rotating shaft 131. The ball bearing 18 is arranged between the rotating shaft 131 and the uniform shaking base and between the rotating shaft 131 and the axle end plate 132. This realizes that the rotating culture drum 13 rotates with the first synchronous pulley 15 and the rotating shaft under the action of the first synchronous belt, the lower end of the rotating shaft 131 is rotationally connected with the uniform shaking base, the upper end of the rotating shaft 131 is rotationally connected with the axle end plate 132, and the upper end of the rotating culture drum 13 is rotationally connected with the axle end plate 132 through the thin-wall bearing 16 and the bearing ring 161.

[0075] In some embodiments, the rotating culture detection mechanism 10 has a reading station for reading the culture bottle signal, a bottle loading station for loading the culture bottle, and an unloading station for unloading the culture bottle. The reading station is located at the highest bottle sleeve 134 in the same central height of a circle of bottle sleeves 134 on the rotating culture drum 13. The bottle loading station and the unloading station are both located at the lowest bottle sleeve 134 in the same central height of a circle of bottle sleeves 134 on the rotating culture drum 13. The culture bottle can be loaded into the bottle loading station and unloaded from the unloading station when reading at the reading station. If the reading result is positive, the culture bottle can be directly unloaded. The bottle loading station and the unloading station are located at the lowest bottle sleeve 134, which has the smallest angle at the lowest point, making it convenient to operate. The bottle loading station and the unloading station are horizontal, so that the arrangement of the loading and unloading mechanism can ensure that the movement direction is horizontal, thereby ensuring the loading and unloading of the culture bottle. The fixed reading station can ensure that the angle of the culture bottle is consistent during each reading, avoiding the influence of the liquid level on the reading result (the detector is based on optical principles. In the traditional shaking table structure, the reflectivity is collected every 10 minutes for each bottle position during data collection. During the entire incubation period, there will be data collection points at different bottle position angles. In the extreme case, there may be a critical state where the liquid level does not cover the bottle bottom or the liquid level completely covers the bottle bottom, resulting in inconsistent bottle bottom states of the collected data values, causing periodic jitter in the growth curve, and triggering false positive problems). When reading data, especially when the liquid in the bottle is too little, the liquid level may not completely cover the bottle bottom, affecting the reading. The reading station is set at the highest position, at which the culture bottle is relatively vertical, ensuring that the liquid level submerges the bottom of the culture bottle, thereby avoiding this problem.

[0076] In addition, in the rotating culture detection mechanism, the culture disc 133 is detachably arranged between the shaft end plate 132 and the rotating culture drum 13, and the spring piece 135 is arranged in the bottle sleeve 134 to fix the culture bottle. The rotating culture detection mechanism 10 further comprises a code disc and an optical coupler. The notch on the code disc corresponds to the position of the culture bottle on the rotating culture drum, and is used to cooperate with the culture bottle position recognition.

[0077] Specifically, for example, Figure 2 In some embodiments, the culture disc 133 is mounted on the outer side of the upper end of the rotating culture drum 13 in the axial direction. The rotating culture drum 13 has an expansion requirement, and the number of culture discs 133 can be increased within the allowable range of the reliability of the corresponding driving and transmission elements. The spring piece 135 is arranged in the bottle sleeve 134 and fixedly clamped in the bottle sleeve 134 through elastic support, making it convenient to take and fix the culture bottle. The notch (or light blocking position) on the code disc corresponds to the position of each culture position, and cooperates with the optical coupler to recognize the culture bottle position. In addition, there is a reference position optical coupler for determining the sequence or zero position of the entire culture position. According to the function of the code disc and the optical coupler for recognizing the culture bottle position, other sensors and triggers can also be used to replace them.

[0078] For the automatic sample injection mechanism 20, specifically including a second driving unit and a conveying belt 21, the second driving unit is used to drive the conveying belt 21 to convey, the conveying belt 21 is provided with a guide plate 22 at the end in the conveying direction, one side of the guide plate 22 is provided with a groove 222 for the culture bottle to enter, one side of the groove 222 is provided with a code scanning gun for scanning the code of the culture bottle. The guide plate 22 is provided with a guide surface 221 inclined towards the groove 222 and connected to the groove 222, both sides of the entrance of the groove 222 are provided with guide rollers 223, and both sides of the conveying belt 21 in the conveying direction are provided with conveying belt baffles 23.

[0079] In the specific implementation process, as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 6 , the automatic sample injection mechanism 20 is transported to the designated loading position, i.e. the culture bottle to be cultured is placed on the conveying belt 21, and the culture bottle is guided into the groove 222 during conveying by the guide plate 222, and the position of the groove 222 is the designated loading position. A code scanning frame can be provided near the groove 222, which is used to fix the code scanning gun for scanning the code of the culture bottle. During the conveying process of the conveying belt 21, the culture bottle is guided by the guide surface 221 of the guide plate 222, and the culture bottle will be conveyed into the groove 222, and the culture bottle enters the groove 222 through the action of the guide roller 223, and at this time the culture bottle can be fixedly clamped at the groove 222 by the clamping jaw 37; in order to prevent the culture bottle from falling out of the conveying belt 21 during conveying, the conveying belt baffles 23 are arranged on both sides of the conveying belt 21. In addition, in this embodiment, the function of the second driving unit is mainly to drive the conveying belt 21 to convey, and a conventional driving member such as a motor can be used. The specific structure of the second driving unit in this embodiment includes a second stepper motor 24, a motor base 25 and a belt shaft 26, the motor base 25 is used to install the second stepper motor 24, the second stepper motor 24 and the belt shaft 26 are connected through a shaft coupling 27, the belt shaft 26 is installed on a belt shaft seat 261, and the conveying belt 21 is sleeved outside the belt shaft 26. The second driving unit drives the belt shaft 26 to rotate through the second stepper motor 24, thereby driving the conveying belt 21 to rotate.

[0080] For the clamping jaw moving unit in the automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30, it specifically comprises a multi-axis moving unit and a support frame 31, the end of the multi-axis moving unit is connected with the clamping jaw 37, the clamping jaw 37 can be moved in multiple axes through the multi-axis moving unit; the multi-axis moving unit comprises a Y-axis slider 331 and a Z-axis slider 351, the support frame 31 is provided with a Y-axis bottom plate 32, the Y-axis bottom plate 32 is provided with a Y-axis guide rail 33, and the Y-axis guide rail 33 is slidably provided with the Y-axis slider 331; the Y-axis slider 331 is connected with a Z-axis bottom plate 32, the Z-axis bottom plate 32 is provided with a Z-axis guide rail 33 which is perpendicular to the Y-axis guide rail 33, the Z-axis guide rail 33 is slidably provided with the Z-axis slider 351, and the Z-axis slider 351 is provided with the clamping jaw 37 for grabbing the culture bottle. The support frame 31 is provided with a linear guide shaft 36 which is perpendicular to the Z-axis guide rail 33, and the lower end of the Z-axis bottom plate 32 is provided with a guide hole which is penetrated by the linear guide shaft. The Z-axis bottom plate 32 and the Y-axis bottom plate 32 are respectively provided with a third driving unit, and the third driving unit is used to drive the Z-axis slider 351 to slide along the Z-axis guide rail 33 and drive the Y-axis slider 331 to slide along the Y-axis guide rail 33.

[0081] In the specific implementation process, as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 7 , the clamping jaw 37 of the automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30 is used to move the culture bottle from the designated loading position to the rotating culture drum, specifically, the position of the clamping jaw 37 is moved by using the multi-axis moving unit, and the clamping jaw 37 is started to grab the culture bottle in the groove 222 and use the code scanning gun to scan the code, after the code scanning is completed, the culture bottle is placed in the corresponding bottle sleeve 134 of the rotating culture drum 13. Among them, the clamping jaw 37 can be an electric clamping jaw 37, which can be automatically controlled through a program, and an existing electric clamping jaw in the instrument can be used, which will not be described here.

[0082] In actual design, the multi-axis moving unit can adopt a multi-axis structure such as a mechanical arm, as long as it can realize the movement of the clamping jaw 37 in at least two axial directions and the male bottle taking position 40, the female bottle container 50, the groove 222 and the bottle feeding station are in the moving path of the clamping jaw, and the rotating culture drum 13 can be moved in three axial directions. In the specific embodiment of the present scheme, the structure of Y-axis and Z-axis is used to move the position of the clamping jaw 37, and the male bottle taking position 40, the female bottle container 50, the groove 222 and the bottle feeding station are also in the same YZ plane. Specifically, for example, Figure 7In the middle, Z-axis slider 351 along the Z-axis guide rail 33, driving the jaw 37 along the vertical direction; when the Z-axis slider 351 does not move, the Y-axis slider 331 along the Y-axis guide rail 33, driving the jaw 37 on the Z-axis slider 351 in the horizontal direction, that is, the jaw 37 can be moved in the horizontal and vertical two-axis, so that the jaw 37 can be achieved to reach any position in the horizontal and vertical direction, clamping and moving the culture bottle. Since the Z-axis bottom plate 32 is connected to the Y-axis slider 331 and needs to move with the Y-axis slider 331, in order to increase the stability of the Z-axis bottom plate 32, a limit guide shaft is arranged, which limits and guides the lower end of the Z-axis bottom plate 32 when the Z-axis bottom plate 32 moves with the Y-axis slider 331.

[0083] In order to control the sliding process of the Z-axis slider 351 and the Y-axis slider 331, a third driving unit is arranged respectively, and the third driving unit can be designed conventionally, such as using a motor and a crank slider mechanism, or using a cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder and the like structure, or a suitable driving mechanism can be designed according to the actual situation. In the specific embodiment of the present scheme, the third driving unit includes a servo motor 38 and a third synchronous belt 39, and third synchronous pulleys are arranged at both ends of the Z-axis bottom plate 32 along the Z-axis sliding rail and at both ends of the Y-axis bottom plate 32 along the Y-axis slider 331. The third synchronous belt 39 is sleeved on the third synchronous pulley 391, and the Z-axis slider 351 and the Y-axis slider 331 are fixed on the two third synchronous belts 39 respectively. The servo motor 38 drives the third synchronous pulley to rotate, drives the third synchronous belt 39 to move, and realizes the sliding of the Z-axis slider 351 along the Z-axis guide rail 33 and the sliding of the Y-axis slider 331 along the Y-axis guide rail 33.

[0084] For the whole culture system, the rotary culture detection mechanism 10, the automatic sampling mechanism 20 and the automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30 are installed on the whole machine bottom plate 60, and the male bottle taking position 40 and the female bottle container 50 are arranged on the whole machine bottom plate 60. The outer cover of the rotary culture detection mechanism 10, the automatic sampling mechanism 20 and the automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30 is provided with a shell, and a heating film and a temperature sensor are arranged in the shell. For example, Figure 1In order to facilitate the overall layout and fixation of the structure, the rotary culture detection mechanism 10, the automatic sample injection mechanism 20, and the automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30 are mounted on the base plate 60 of the whole machine. A positive bottle retrieval position 40 and a negative bottle container 50 are also provided. The positive bottle retrieval position is located outside the automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30, and the negative bottle container 50 is located outside the automatic sample injection mechanism 20. After the culture bottle completes the detection, it is removed by the gripper 37 and placed in the positive bottle retrieval position or the negative bottle container 50 according to the detection result. The user can then remove the culture bottle from either position. The housing can be mounted on the base plate 60 to isolate the rotary culture detection mechanism 10, the automatic sample injection mechanism 20, and the automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30 from the external environment, making the culture system relatively sealed. This effectively isolates the effects of temperature, vibration, etc., caused by user operation and prevents improper operation of the culture bottles, providing excellent stable conditions for signal detection. It also avoids the need to handle unexpected situations such as anonymous bottles or lost bottles. The heating film and temperature sensor can control the ambient temperature inside this detection system within the required range.

[0085] In the specific application of this culture system, it can be divided into bottling process, detection process and unbottling process, as follows.

[0086] Bottling Process: The user places the blood culture bottles to be cultured on conveyor belt 21. The software (this system can be automated by designing software according to the application process) starts the automatic bottle feeding. Conveyor belt 21 begins to transport the culture bottles. During the transport process, the culture bottles reach the groove 222. The gripper 37 picks up the culture bottles in the groove 222 and rotates them. During this rotation, the barcode scanner completes the barcode recording of the culture bottles (it can also detect the amount of blood added to the culture bottles during this process). After the barcode is scanned, the rotating culture detection mechanism 10 stops rotating when the pre-assigned bottle sleeve 134 passes the bottling position. During the bottle loading and unloading process, the gripper 37 is moved by the cooperation of the Y and Z axes to insert the culture bottles into the bottle sleeve 134. After the gripper 37 leaves the motion interference area, the rotating culture detection mechanism 10 continues to move.

[0087] Detection process: There are currently two detection methods: dynamic detection and static detection. Dynamic detection means that the detector 19 is always in working condition throughout the entire culture process. When the culture bottle passes the detection position, a set of data is detected, a certain segment of data is taken and processed as the bottom reflection value of the culture bottle, and transmitted to the host computer. Static detection means that, under the premise of ensuring the shaking effect of the rotating culture detection mechanism 10, each bottle sleeve 134 is stopped at the detection position at fixed time intervals. After completing stable data acquisition, the rotating shaking motion continues.

[0088] The bottle unloading process: after the culture bottle reports negative, the rotating culture detection mechanism 10 stops rotating after the negative bottle reaches the unloading position, the automatic loading and unloading mechanism 30 pulls out the negative bottle through the Y-axis and Z-axis movement and the clamping jaw 37, and places it in the negative bottle container 50. After a certain number of negative bottles are reached, the software reminds the user to take away the negative culture bottles in the negative bottle container 50 for disposal. After the culture bottle reports positive, in order to prevent the temperature of the bacterial growth environment from not being guaranteed after being taken out, the culture bottle is still placed in the bottle sleeve 134, and the software and / or indicator light and / or buzzer alarm to prompt the user that the positive report is reported. After the user issues the instruction to take out the positive bottle through the software, the culture system and the bottle unloading system cooperate to take out the positive culture bottle and place it in a position convenient for the user to take away.

[0089] In some embodiments, the scheme also provides a microbial culture method, comprising the following steps:

[0090] Adding the sample to be cultured into the culture bottle with the nutrient solution;

[0091] Placing the culture bottle into the microbial culture system for culture;

[0092] Driving the culture bottle to rotate during the culture process to change the angle with the horizontal plane, and rotating at least twice;

[0093] Periodically collecting data of the culture bottle during the rotation process, and ensuring that the culture bottle is at the target angle during data collection;

[0094] The microbial culture system acquires the collected data and analyzes whether there is microbial growth in the sample to be cultured; if yes, a positive signal is released; if no, and the culture time of the sample to be cultured reaches the target time, a negative signal is released. If no microbial growth is detected and the culture time also does not reach the target time, the rotation and data collection can continue.

[0095] In order to ensure that the data collection position is fixed, that is, to ensure that the angle of the culture bottle during data collection is fixed, the data collection period is an integer multiple of the culture bottle rotation period. Since the culture time is generally long, in days, in order to avoid too frequent collection, the data collection period is at least 10 times the culture bottle rotation period.

[0096] If a positive signal is released, the microbial culture system takes out the corresponding culture bottle to a designated position or keeps the corresponding culture bottle in the microbial culture system for continued culture according to the user's selection; if a negative signal is released, the microbial culture system takes out the culture bottle releasing the negative signal to a designated position.

[0097] The culture method can be implemented by using the microbial culture system disclosed in the present application. The following is described by using the microbial culture system disclosed in the present application. Exemplarily, the rotation period is set to 20 s, the data acquisition period is set to 10 min, and the target time is set to 5 days.

[0098] As shown in Figure 2 The culture method is implemented by using any one of the microbial culture systems described above, and the culture method comprises the following steps:

[0099] The culture bottle is inserted into the bottle sleeve 134, and the rotating culture drum 13 is driven to rotate along the central axis thereof by the first driving unit, rotates one round every 20 s, and data is acquired every 10 min;

[0100] For the culture bottle that reports negative after 5 days of culture, the culture bottle is taken out and thrown into the negative culture bottle collection barrel;

[0101] For the culture bottle that reports positive within 5 days of culture, the culture bottle is prompted to report positive by the culture system, and the culture bottle is taken out and placed at a designated position.

[0102] In some embodiments, the culture bottle is prompted to report positive by the culture system, and the culture bottle is taken out and placed at a designated position, comprising:

[0103] The positive culture bottle is placed at a designated position by the claw hand, and the user can take it away conveniently.

[0104] In some embodiments, the rotating culture drum 13 rotates one round every 20 s, and data is acquired every 10 min, comprising:

[0105] The rotating culture drum 13 is incubated for 24 hours with a rotation period of 20 seconds. Each row of culture bottles on the rotating culture drum 13 performs a group of data acquisition every 2 times of passing through the bottle feeding station. The data uploading period is 10 min. The median value of the 15 groups of collected data is taken as the value of the reflectivity of each culture bottle and uploaded to the upper computer. The growth curve of the corresponding bottle position is generated until the end of culture.

[0106] Specifically, after the culture bottles are loaded, the first driving unit starts to run, starts to drive the entire rotating culture detection mechanism 10 to rotate, and incubates for 24 hours with a rotation period of 20 seconds. Each row of culture bottles performs a group of data acquisition every 2 times of passing through the bottle feeding station. The data uploading period is 10 min. The median value of the 15 groups of collected data is taken as the value of the reflectivity of each culture bottle and uploaded to the upper computer. The growth curve of the corresponding bottle position is generated until the end of culture.

[0107] After the positive bottle is reported, the instrument prompts the user to report the positive information, the user issues the instruction of taking out the positive bottle through the software, the incubation system receives the instruction and runs the column position where the positive bottle is located to the lowest level position (unloading station), triggers the light coupling shielding signal, drives the instrument gripper, Y-axis, Z-axis motor to drive the corresponding slider and its own rotating mechanism to run to the unloading bottle position, the gripper grabs the culture bottle, then drives the Y-axis, Z-axis and gripper motor to move to the positive bottle outlet rack and put the bottle, and the user takes out the positive culture bottle.

[0108] The above embodiments only exemplarily illustrate the principles and effects of the present application, and are not used to limit the present application. Any person skilled in the art can modify or change the above embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Therefore, all equivalent modifications or changes completed by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and technical thought disclosed by the present application should be covered by the claims of the present application.

Claims

1. A microbial culture system for culturing a test sample and at least detecting the presence or absence of microorganisms therein, characterized in that, include: A rotating culture and detection mechanism includes a rotating culture drum and a first drive unit. The rotating culture drum is equipped with a plurality of bottle sleeves for loading culture bottles, arranged circumferentially around the rotating culture drum. The first drive unit drives the rotating culture drum to rotate, causing the bottle sleeves to rotate circumferentially along the central axis of the rotating culture drum. The central axis of the rotating culture drum is inclined, and the angle between the central axis of the bottle sleeves and the central axis of the rotating culture drum is less than 90°, so that when the bottle sleeves rotate circumferentially along the central axis of the rotating culture drum, the angle between the central axis of the bottle sleeves and the horizontal plane changes. The detector is used to detect the growth of microorganisms in the culture flask and output at least a detection signal to determine the presence or absence of microorganisms.

2. The microbial culture system according to claim 1, characterized in that: During the rotation of the rotating culture drum, when the bottle sleeve is at its lowest point, the angle between the central axis of the bottle sleeve and the horizontal direction is less than 15°, and / or, the opening of the bottle sleeve faces upward, and / or, the central axis of the bottle sleeve is horizontal.

3. The microbial culture system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The detector is located at the bottom of the bottle sleeve; a detector is set for each bottle sleeve at the same center height on the rotating culture roller, or a detector is set at the bottom of each bottle sleeve.

4. A microbial culture system according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that, Also includes: An automated sample delivery mechanism is used to transport blood culture bottles to the designated loading position; An automatic loading and unloading mechanism has grippers and a gripper moving unit for moving the grippers. The grippers are used to transport culture flasks located at a designated loading position to the rotating culture drum or to transport culture flasks in the rotating culture drum to a designated unloading position.

5. A microbial culture system according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that: The rotating culture and detection mechanism also includes an inclined base and a shaking bracket. The rotating culture drum is inclinedly arranged on the inclined base, and a shaft end plate is rotatably arranged at the upper end of the rotating culture drum. The shaking bracket is fixedly connected to the shaft end plate. A motor bracket for arranging the first drive unit is provided on the inclined base.

6. A microbial culture system according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that: The rotating culture detection mechanism has a reading station for reading signals from culture bottles, an infeed station for placing culture bottles, and an unloading station for unloading culture bottles. The reading station is located at the highest point of a ring of bottle sleeves at the same center height on the rotating culture drum. The infeed station and the unloading station are both located at the lowest point of a ring of bottle sleeves at the same center height on the rotating culture drum.

7. A microbial culture system according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that, It also includes a culture bottle, which comprises a culture bottle body and an embedded structure; the culture bottle body is used to hold nutrient solution, and the culture bottle body has a bottle mouth, at which a bottle mouth plug is provided to seal the culture bottle body; the embedded structure is located inside the culture bottle body and has a holding part for holding adsorbents and a leak-proof part to prevent adsorbents from directly contacting the nutrient solution; the leak-proof part is connected to the culture bottle body, so that the adsorbents can enter the culture bottle body through the leak-proof part and mix with the nutrient solution.

8. A microbial culture system according to claim 7, characterized in that, The inner diameter of the leak-proof part is smaller than that of the container part, and / or the leak-proof part has a blocking part for blocking the adsorbed material of the container part.

9. A method for culturing microorganisms, characterized in that, The cultivation method includes the following steps: Add the sample to be cultured to the culture flask containing nutrient solution; The culture flask is placed in a microbial culture system for cultivation. During the cultivation process, the culture flask is driven to rotate, changing the angle between itself and the horizontal plane, and the rotation is at least two full rotations. During the rotation process, data is periodically collected from the culture flask, ensuring that the culture flask is at the target angle during data collection; The microbial culture system acquires the collected data and analyzes whether there is microbial growth in the sample to be cultured; if so, it releases a positive signal; if not, and the culture time of the sample to be cultured reaches the target time, it releases a negative signal.

10. The microbial culture method as described in claim 9, characterized in that, In the step of periodically collecting data on the culture flask during rotation, The data acquisition period is an integer multiple of the culture flask rotation period, and at least 10 times.

11. The microbial culture method as described in claim 9 or 10, characterized in that, It also includes the following steps: If a positive signal is released, the microbial culture system will either remove the corresponding culture bottle to a designated location or retain the corresponding culture bottle in the microbial culture system for continued culture, depending on the user's selection; if a negative signal is released, the microbial culture system will remove the culture bottle that released the negative signal to a designated location.

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