Charuruks N, Huayhongthong V, Srisink N, Yangsuk S, Dangchen N, Pirom S, Noysri P
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
J Med Assoc Thai. 1997 Sep;80 Suppl 1:S62-71.
Automated reticulocyte counting has become an essential instrument of the hematology laboratory. This automatic technique has lead to diminishing labour tasks and to significant improvements in accuracy and precision compared with the manual microscopic methods. In any event, it adds a considerable expense to the laboratory budget. Here, we report the modified method of applying the new mixture of 1 microL of whole blood with 1 mL of reticulocyte reagent, which we evaluated for its accuracy and precision, instead of using the mixture of 3 microL of whole blood with 3 mL of reticulocyte reagent recommended by the company. We demonstrated the accepted accurate and precise results of percentage and absolute number of retculocyte count, low-stained reticulocyte count and its corpuscular indices; the mean reticulocyte corpuscular volume (MCVr), mean reticulocyte corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (CHCMr), and mean reticulocyte hemoglobin content (CHr). These suggested that, for every red cell assessed, the number, the cell volume, hemoglobin content and concentration are accurately and precisely measured by the modified method while the sub-populations of reticulocyte count and distribution width of reticulocyte indices are variable. In conclusion, our results provided the information that 1) the modified method can be used as a routine test and it provides accurate and precise results; 2) with the modified method, two-thirds of the expense spent for reticulocyte reagent can be saved; 3) it should not be used for research purposes.
自动网织红细胞计数已成为血液学实验室的一项重要检测手段。与手工显微镜检查方法相比，这种自动化技术减少了劳动量，并显著提高了准确性和精密度。无论如何，它都会给实验室预算增加一笔可观的费用。在此，我们报告了一种改良方法，即使用1微升全血与1毫升网织红细胞试剂的新混合液，而非使用该公司推荐的3微升全血与3毫升网织红细胞试剂的混合液，并对其准确性和精密度进行了评估。我们展示了网织红细胞计数的百分比和绝对值、低色素网织红细胞计数及其细胞指数（平均网织红细胞体积（MCVr）、平均网织红细胞血红蛋白浓度（CHCMr）和平均网织红细胞血红蛋白含量（CHr））所获得的准确且精密的结果。这些结果表明，对于每一个评估的红细胞，通过改良方法能够准确且精密地测量其数量、细胞体积、血红蛋白含量和浓度，而网织红细胞计数的亚群和网织红细胞指数的分布宽度是可变的。总之，我们的结果表明：1）改良方法可作为常规检测方法使用，且能提供准确且精密的结果；2）使用改良方法可节省三分之二的网织红细胞试剂费用；3）该方法不适用于研究目的。
