Clinical utility of Beckman-Coulter Gen's reticulocyte analysis in the study of anemia of chronic disease (ACD).

The aim of this study is to analyze the reticulocyte parameters (classical and research parameters) acquired by the Beckman Coulter GEN'S blood counter (GEN'S; Brea, CA, USA) to establish the "reticulocyte profile" characteristics of patients with anemia of chronic disease (ACD). The reticulocyte parameters and profile provided by the GEN'S were studied in 38 anemic patients who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for the ACD, and the results were compared with those of 38 healthy controls in a multivariate statistical analysis using the Student t-test and the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis.Statistically significant (P <.05) differences between the 2 population groups were observed in several of the reticulocyte parameters provided by the GEN'S: mean volume of the reticulocyte population (MRV) (high), percentage of high light scatter reticulocytes HLR% (high), mean volume of the whole sphered red cell and reticulocyte population (MSCV) (high) MCV-MSCV (low) with the highest diagnostic value, as measured by the area under the ROC curve (>0.9), for the IRF (high) and the reticulocyte population data: mean channel scatter retics (high) and the mean channel conductivity retics (high). This study establishes the reticulocyte parameters and reticulocyte profile as provided by the GEN'S and characteristic of patients with ACD as compared with normal subjects. This should provide the basis for further studies comparing the reticulocyte profile of patients with ACD with those found in other types of anemia.