Patent ID: 8147754

Claim:
A sample measuring apparatus of measuring a component in a blood sample, comprising: an input section adapted to input species of animal; a preparation section adapted to prepare a measurement sample for counting red blood cells and platelets by mixing the blood sample with a reagent; an electric measurement section adapted to electrically measure blood cells, wherein the electric measurement section generates for each blood cell an impedance signal that reflects a size of the blood cell; an optical measurement section adapted to optically measure the blood cells, wherein the optical measurement section comprising a light source that irradiates blood cells and a light detector that detects a scattered light intensity from the irradiated blood cell and generates an optical signal according to the scattered light intensity; a controller comprising a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory, wherein the controller is programmed to perform instructions of carrying out steps of measuring the red blood cells and the blood platelets from the measurement sample, the steps comprising: according to an input of animal species, setting one of a first measurement mode and a second measurement mode; upon the first measurement mode, controlling the electric measurement section to obtain impedance finals from blood cells in the measurement sample prepared by the preparation section; discriminating the blood cells in the measurement sample into red blood cells and blood platelets based on the impedance signals; and counting the red blood cells and the blood platelets; upon the second measurement mode: controlling the optical measurement section to obtain optical finals from the measurement sample prepared by the preparing section; discriminating the blood cells in the measurement sample into the red blood cells and the blood platelets based on the optical signals; and counting the red blood cells and the blood platelets.