An evaluation of the Beckman-Coulter AcT 3-part differential haematology analyzer in a tertiary hospital laboratory.

BACKGROUND

The Beckman-Coulter AcT differential haematology analyzer was evaluated to compare its haemoglobin (HGB), haematocrit (HCT), platelet (PLT), total white cell count (WBC) values and differential leukocyte count (DLC) with the reference manual methods used in our laboratory.

METHODS

Samples drawn into 5 millilitres k3 EDTA bottles were selected on a random basis from our routine workload over a 4-week period. Fifty patient samples were analyzed on the AcT diff Coulter analyzer. The same patient samples were then reanalyzed using the reference manual method for comparison. Haemoglobin (cyanmethhaemoglobin method), haematocrit (micro-haematocrit method), total WBC (Turk's Method), platelet (Brecker-Cronkite method) were carried out and blood films were stained with leishman stain, and a 100-cell manual differential count was performed under oil immersion.

RESULTS

The Beckman Coulter AcT 3 diff haematology analyzer was shown to have excellent precision and accuracy for HGB and HCT with coefficient of correlation > 0.974. WBC and PLT had low coefficient of correlation of 0.208 and 0.034 respectively. The DLC parameters was shown to have good correlation coefficients for neutrophils > 0.876 and lymphocytes > 0.84. Monocytes showed a low correlation of 0.082 without clinical significance.

CONCLUSION

The clinical sensitivity of the instrument in relation to the population evaluated was good. In all, the study results indicate that the AcT 3-part haematology analyzer could improve the overall laboratory productivity with flagged abnormal results being confirmed by the manual reference method.