Evaluation of a new reagent for preserving fresh blood samples and its potential usefulness for internal quality controls of multichannel hematology analyzers.

We describe a new, easy-to-use reagent, Cyto-Chex (Streck Laboratories, Omaha, Neb), that preserves fresh whole blood in a non-cross-linking, nonformalin manner. Target values assigned to fresh blood were essentially met after preservation and storage of up to 31 days. Respective mean analytic inaccuracies and short-term intra-assay coefficients of variation (n = 30) were as follows: WBCs, 6.7% and 1.99%; RBCs, 0.7% and 0.76%; hemoglobin, -1.8% and 0.79%; hematocrit, -0.3% and 0.75%; mean corpuscular volume, -1.0% and 0.78%; and platelets, 6.9% and 3.12%. Linearity of dilution-sensitive analytes was satisfactory over a wide range of dilutions after preservation of blood samples. Ten independent laboratories using 10 different instruments determined day-to-day interassay imprecision during four 7-day periods after blood preservation. Mean interassay coefficients of variation for participating laboratories were WBC, 1.92%; RBC, 1.00%; hemoglobin, 1.29%; hematocrit, 2.00%; and platelets 3.29%. Cyto-Chex enables long-term monitoring of instrument accuracy and precision with retained blood specimens of healthy persons. Blood from patient cohorts with various hematologic disorders and with a wide range of numeric abnormalities and/or parameter aberrations can be preserved satisfactorily with this reagent. The reanalysis of preserved patient blood samples is an important adjunct to the use of commercial control material in quality control programs of multichannel hematology analyzers.