Evaluation of the reticulocyte count portion of technicon H*3 blood analyzer: lowering the test expense by reducing the reticulocyte reagent.

Automated reticulocyte counting has become an essential instrument of the hematology laboratory. This automatic technique has lead to diminishing labour tasks and to significant improvements in accuracy and precision compared with the manual microscopic methods. In any event, it adds a considerable expense to the laboratory budget. Here, we report the modified method of applying the new mixture of 1 microL of whole blood with 1 mL of reticulocyte reagent, which we evaluated for its accuracy and precision, instead of using the mixture of 3 microL of whole blood with 3 mL of reticulocyte reagent recommended by the company. We demonstrated the accepted accurate and precise results of percentage and absolute number of retculocyte count, low-stained reticulocyte count and its corpuscular indices; the mean reticulocyte corpuscular volume (MCVr), mean reticulocyte corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (CHCMr), and mean reticulocyte hemoglobin content (CHr). These suggested that, for every red cell assessed, the number, the cell volume, hemoglobin content and concentration are accurately and precisely measured by the modified method while the sub-populations of reticulocyte count and distribution width of reticulocyte indices are variable. In conclusion, our results provided the information that 1) the modified method can be used as a routine test and it provides accurate and precise results; 2) with the modified method, two-thirds of the expense spent for reticulocyte reagent can be saved; 3) it should not be used for research purposes.

Changes in white blood cells and myeloperoxidase activity in rhG-CSF prophylactic patients receiving cytotoxic chemotherapy.

The patterns of white blood cell parameters and mean peroxidase index (MPXI) changes in recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) prophylactic patients, receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy, have been studied in 8 cases, using flow cytochemistry blood autoanalyser (Technicon R H*1). No severe neutropenia (absolute neutrophil count, ANC < 0.50 x 10(9)/L) appeared in 6 rhG-CSF primary prophylactic patients, but severe neutropenia was noticed in 2 rhG-CSF secondary prophylactic patients for a period less than 1 week. In most of the cases the significant increase of neutrophil during leukocytosis occurred within 24 hours after starting rhG-CSF prophylaxis, and decreased within 24 hours after the end of rhG-CSF prophylaxis. There was a small degree of lymphocytosis, monocytosis, and basophilia in some cases. From this study, there were no significant changes of MPXI during rhG-CSF prophylaxis, the neutrophils produced during proliferative response to rhG-CSF possessed normal myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. We concluded that the information obtained from automated blood cell analyser Technicon R H*1 especially MPXI and ANC, could be very useful for monitoring rhG-CSF prophylactic patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy. The advantages of the MPXI over other methods is its simplification when performed as part of a routine complete blood count (CBC) on an automated hematology instrument, and its ability to measure even severe neutropenic samples.