Complete blood count in neonatal Intensive care Unit (NICU): Performance comparison between POCT Sight OLO® and Sysmex XN-9100™ hematology analyzers.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The use of a POCT (Point Of Care Test) could help in reducing the impact of pre-analytical errors in particular in challenging newborn samples.The study purpose is to compare the POCT Sight OLO® hematology analyzer, validated for >3 months patients, with the reference system Sysmex XN-9100™ in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The two analyzers were compared through Passing-Bablok regression analysis and Bland-Altman plot.

RESULTS

We analyzed 65 blood samples, in detail 38 from adults and 27 from newborns.The regression analysis results performed in the newborn and adult patients showed a good agreement between the two instruments. The evaluation of the Bland-Altman plots showed comparable values of bias <10 % for the most of parameters.The evaluation of sample flags for the presence of distributional and morphological abnormalities showed a partial accordance between the two approaches, but the POCT exhibited good performance compared to the final report revised by the laboratory specialist.

CONCLUSIONS

The comparison of the two instruments demonstrated that they provide comparable blood counts, also in patients aged <3 months. The POCT allows having reliable analytical data and faster turning around time, particularly useful in NICU.