Clinical performance evaluation of the new hematology analyzer Mindray BC-6000.

INTRODUCTION

With the progression of blood analysis technology, hematology analyzers become more complex and diverse. How to choose a superb instrument is a challenge for the laboratories. In the essay, we studied whether the newest BC-6000 hematology analyzer meets the needs of a clinical hematology laboratory.

METHODS

Methods comparison was performed using 350 blood samples from patients between different measurement procedures; the basic analytical performance was also tested, including the throughput, carryover, precision, and linearity in different modes. The flagging performances for blasts, immature granulocytes, and NRBC were compared with manual microscopy.

RESULTS

There were minimal carryover (<0.30%) and excellent actual blood linearity for all routinely used parameters concerned by the clinicians (R  ≥ 0.997). Repeatability and reproducibility were satisfactory at all testing levels. The functional sensitivity of leukocytes and platelets in the blood and leukocytes and erythrocytes in body fluid was excellent at the 20% CV level. BC-6000 and XN displayed very high correlations for complete blood count (CBC) parameters and very high consistency for leukocyte differentials and NRBC compared with manual microscopy. BC-6000 showed excellent sensitivity and specificity flagging ability on blasts (82.9% and 82.4%) and NRBC (80.0% and 96.9%). For immature granulocytes, BC-6000 showed excellent sensitivity but common specificity flagging ability (91.7% and 65.6%).

CONCLUSION

The clinical performance of BC-6000 is excellent, and the analyzer can provide timely and accurate reporting for most of the small- to large-scale laboratories.