Reference ranges for lymphocyte subsets. A comparison of standard vs rapid whole-blood lysis techniques.

Reference ranges for lymphocyte subsets may vary with processing techniques, monoclonal reagents, or analytic methods. We compared reference ranges obtained for T- and B-lymphocyte subsets by means of standard manual whole-blood lysis with a wash step vs a rapid, no-wash whole-blood lysis system. Both techniques demonstrated reference ranges similar to those in previous literature reports. The ranges established with standard and rapid lysis were similar when antibodies directed to the same cluster designation were used. Although slight statistical differences in relative percentages of CD2 and CD3 lymphocytes were observed, these differences were probably not clinically significant. These data indicate that the rapid technique provides a standardized method for enumerating T and B lymphocytes in peripheral blood.