Short preheating at 41°C leads to a red blood cells count comparable to that in RET channel of Sysmex analysers in samples showing cold agglutination
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Fiamma Balboni; Antonio La Gioia; Maurizio Fumi; Ylenia Pancione; Alessandra Marini; Fabiana Fiorini; Maria Bombara; Elisa Marchese; Vincenzo Rocco; Paola Pezzati; Silvia Sale; Marcello Fiorini; Leonardo Solarino
- Source
- Journal of Clinical Pathology. 71:729-734
- Subject
- Erythrocytes
Hot Temperature
Time Factors
Population
RBC Agglutination
Pathology and Forensic Medicine
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Reticulocyte
Predictive Value of Tests
medicine
Humans
education
Normal range
Blood Specimen Collection
education.field_of_study
Chromatography
Chemistry
Hemagglutination
Reproducibility of Results
Equipment Design
General Medicine
Complete resolution
Cold Agglutinin
Peripheral blood
Agglutination (biology)
medicine.anatomical_structure
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
Erythrocyte Count
Anemia, Hemolytic, Autoimmune
030215 immunology
- Language
- ISSN
- 1472-4146
0021-9746
AimsThe presence of cold agglutinin in blood samples can cause a spontaneous agglutination of red blood cells (RBCs) when low temperature occurs. This phenomenon causes a spurious lowering of RBC count on the automated haematological analysers that are detected by incongruous values (≥370 g/L) of the mean cellular haemoglobi concentration (MCHC). A preheating at 37°C can remove the RBC agglutination generally resulting in a reliable count. It has been reported that the same result can be reached by using the optical reticulocyte (RET) channel of Sysmex analysers where the RBC count is not influenced by the presence of cold agglutinin. This study aims to evaluate these data in a larger population, with regard to environmental conditions on Sysmex analysers. We have also evaluated the influence of different thermal pretreatments on the RBC count.MethodsThis study was performed on 96 remnants of peripheral blood samples (48 with MCHC in normal range and 48 with MCHC>370 g/L) which have been analysed in different preanalytical conditions on the Sysmex analysers.ResultsA preheating of samples at 41°C for 1 min leads to a reversibility of the cold agglutination comparable to the one observed in the RET channel and yields better results compared with 37°C for 2 hours.ConclusionsNone of described procedures assure the complete cold agglutination reversibility in every case. Consequently, since the haematological analysers not yet provide reliable parameters to confirm the complete resolution of agglutination, further verification of RBC count accuracy needs to be performed.