Evaluation of the leukocyte differential on a new automated flow cytometry hematology analyzer

Introduction: The Hematoflow (Beckman Coulter, USA) is a new automated hematology analyzer, which provides a 16-part white blood cell count (WBC) differential. Methods: We evaluated the differential WBC count performance of the Hematoflow. 101 blood samples from patients were selected for comparison analysis. Results: The methodological comparison of the WBC differential parameters of neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes and eosinophils showed good correlations among 4 different analyses. More than 1% of blast cells were counted in 30 of 101 samples. A good correlation for blast cell counts obtained by Hematoflow was found with the reference manual method (r=0.9637, P 0.0001). For blast B, Hematoflow shows good correlation with reference method results but did not identify blast T. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that the Hematoflow has a comparable performance with the Sysmex XE-2100 and indicate that B cell lineage ALL can be identified by the use of the Hematoflow in an initial evaluation of acute leukemia.