Flow cytometric enumeration of absolute lymphocyte number in peripheral blood using two parameters of light scatter.

A method was developed to measure the absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) of whole blood using the Spectrum III automated flow cytometer. Ninety-nine samples of human peripheral blood were analysed on the Spectrum and the Coulter Counter S Plus II, to allow for comparison of the two machines. Regression analysis was used to test the extent of agreement between the sets of measurements on the two machines. The results demonstrated that the slope of the regression line was not significantly different from one, indicating a high level of correlation between Spectrum and Coulter ALC's. However, the mean difference between Coulter and Spectrum ALC's was not equal to zero, with the Spectrum giving counts approximately 10% lower than those of the Coulter machine. This is attributed to the different ways by which the two machines define a lymphocyte, the Spectrum III by two parameters of light scatter and the Coulter S Plus II by the single parameter of cell volume.