Automated reticulocyte counting and measurement of reticulocyte cellular indices. Evaluation of the Miles H*3 blood analyzer.

This study evaluated reticulocyte counting and measurement of reticulocyte cellular indices with the Miles H3 blood analyzer, a new instrument that combines the Technicon/Miles technology for blood cells counting with a staining technique allowing counting of reticulocytes, quantification of staining intensity and measurement of reticulocyte cellular indices. Reticulocyte counts obtained with the Miles H3 analyzer were compared with those obtained by manual counting, flow cytometry (thiazole orange method) and by the Sysmex R-3000 (Baxter Diagnostics) reticulocyte analyzer. Reticulocyte counting with the Miles H3 showed excellent precision, and linearity in the range tested (1.1-49% and 1-72% reticulocytes, respectively, with two different protocols) with no significant carryover. Reticulocyte counts were stable after storing blood samples for 72 hours at 4 degrees C. Comparison of the four different methods, showed an acceptable intraclass correlation between Miles H3 and Sysmex R-3000 (intraclass correlation coefficient, [ri] = .952), Miles H3 and flow cytometry (ri = .922), and Sysmex R-3000 and flow cytometry (ri = .938). There was no satisfactory correlation between any of the three automated methods and the values obtained with manual counting of reticulocytes (ri = .538-.755), consistent with the well known imprecision of the manual technique. For a group of normal pediatric subjects, age 1-10, we obtained the following values (+/- SD) of reticulocyte indices: mean corpuscular volume 97.6 +/- 4.7 fL; cell hemoglobin concentration mean 28.2 +/- 1.4 g/dL; cell hemoglobin content 26.7 +/- 1.6 pg. We determined the direct cost, including depreciation, of the manual and instrumental methods. Cost/test varied from $1.61 for manual method to $6.03 for the Sysmex R-3000. Cost/test for flow cytometry and Miles H3 were $3.34 and $3.49, respectively.