EVALUATION OF THE LEUKOCYTE DIFFERENTIAL FLAGS ON AN HEMATOLOGIC ANALYZER - THE COBAS-ARGOS-5-DIFF

To evaluate the leukocyte differential flags of the Cobas Argos 5 Diff ., the authors performed a comparative study between their current ana lyzer, tire Technicon H2, and the manual leukocyte differential. Sampl es (n = 1,600) were collected from the Blood Disease Department of the ir hospital and were tested on both Cobas Argos 5 Diff. (ABX/Roche Hem atology Division, Montpellier, France) and Technicon H2. Abnormalities of the manual leukocyte differential (immature granulocytes, blast ce lls, atypical lymphocytes, hyperbasophil cells, erythroblasts, and hai ry cells) were found in 597 samples. The authors determined the best c ut-off of the quantitative flags-atypical lymphocytes (ALYs) and large immature cells (LICs) using the likelihood ratio method, and the capa bility of the 5 Diff. qualitative flags to determine abnormal subpopul ations by the predictive value of a positive result. The presence of p articular combinations of flags was associated with band cells and bla st cells of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or acute myeloblastic l eukemia (AML). The sensitivity, specificity, and efficiency of the two analyzers were 92.1, 53.9, and 68.2, respectively, for the Argos 5 Di ff., and 93.5, 36.7 and 57.9, respectively, for Technicon H2. In concl usion, the Cobas Argos 5 Diff. is well adapted for detecting leukocyte abnormalities.