COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF HUMAN RED-BLOOD-CELL ANALYSIS WITH 3 DIFFERENT FIELD-FLOW FRACTIONATION SYSTEMS

An extensive multi-laboratory study was conducted to compare three dif ferent field-flow fractionation (FFF) systems for use in the analysis of human erythrocytes. The object of this study was to determine the r elationship between the FFF elution properties for each system and the traditional hematological blood cell parameters. One centrifugal syst em (Utah) and two gravitational systems (Paris and Abbott) were compar ed. In order to analyze erythrocyte populations with a broad range of hematological indices, blood samples were collected from individuals h eterozygous for sickle cell anemia (A/S) and also from normal controls (A/A), and these were analyzed at each site. Identical samples were a nalyzed by the Abbott and Utah sites. With all three systems, blood sa mples from each category produced narrow, overlapping distributions of FFF retention ratios, with the Abbott and Utah systems showing slight elevations in the mean retention ratios for the sickle cell samples. Blood cell elution peak characteristics were compared with standard he matological parameters for each of the FFF systems, and negative corre lations were consistently found between mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and retention ratios. Positive correlations were found between red cel l distribution width (RDW) and retention ratios. Elevated FFF retentio n ratios were frequently found with blood samples having abnormal hema tological profiles. These results demonstrate that the three different ly configured systems all produce similar analysis profiles for erythr ocytes from the classes studied here. The relationships between FFF pa rameters and hematological indices were consistent for all systems.