EVALUATION OF ABBOTT AUTOMATED HEMATOLOGY ANALYZER (CD-3500) IN SEVERE LEUKOPENIA

Leucopenia patient follow-up remains, in terms of laboratory turnaroun d, a heavy workload due to the leucoconcentrations necessary for evalu ating leucocytic formulas. We tested the CD 3500 with the objective of defining its' analytical performances and routine practice. 101 leuco penia samples (<2.10(9)/l) procured from the onco-hemotology departmen t (adults and children) were studied during a 1 month period. The leuc ocytic formula obtained after leuconcentrations was our reference. The alarm sensitivity, as a whole, was of 97% for a 15.5% specificity. Th e correlation coefficients (Cell-Dyn/microscope) for polynuclears, lym phocytes and monocytes were respectively 0.889, 0.925 and 0.926. The c orrelation coefficients observed in both following subgroups: less tha n or equal to 0.5.10(9)/l and > 0.5.10(9)/l were superposable. In 95% of the cases, the numeric value difference between the two methods att ained a maximum of 21% for all neutrophils and lymphocytes and 13% for the monocytes. There was an excellent concordance between both method s for eosinophilia and basophils with confidence intervals of +/- 8.8% and +/- 2.2%. In practice, we feel that the use of a CD 3500 in post chemotherapy leucopenia, is perfectly adaptable and appreciated for le ucocytic formulas, as well as a good exit for aplasia.