A central tenet of good diagnostic laboratory practice is protecting laboratory staff from contact with sample-borne pathogens and dangerous chemicals. Automated sample-processing systems can reduce or eliminate the risk of exposure to infectious samples while providing results on par with, or better than, those from manually processed samples. In addition, hands-free automated processing may enable analysts to focus on higher order activities while eliminating the risk of repetitive strain injuries associated with manual pipetting. Here, we describe a semi-automated tuberculosis interferon-γ release assay (IGRA) workflow that includes an automated high-throughput sample-processing system. The system automates cap removal, automates sample mixing and aspiration of blood from lithium heparin collection tubes, and aliquots blood samples into multiple blood assay tubes for downstream testing without manual intervention. We show that automated results are comparable to manual methods without risk of analyst exposure or repetitive strain injury.

中文翻译：

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半自动化的结核病检测工作流程减少了手动危险样品处理和动手时间：概念验证研究。

良好的诊断实验室操作规范的中心宗旨是保护实验室人员免于接触样本传播的病原体和危险化学物质。自动化的样品处理系统可以减少或消除接触传染性样品的风险，同时提供与手动处理样品相同或更好的结果。此外，免提自动处理功能可使分析人员专注于更高级别的活动，同时消除了与手动移液相关的重复性拉伤的风险。在这里，我们描述了一种半自动化的结核病干扰素-γ释放测定（IGRA）工作流程，其中包括一个自动化的高通量样品处理系统。该系统可自动去除瓶盖，自动进行样品混合以及从肝素锂采集管中吸取血液，将血液样品等分到多个血液分析管中，以进行下游测试，而无需人工干预。我们表明，自动化结果可与手动方法媲美，而没有分析师接触或重复性劳损的风险。