Abstract

Background: Storing KxEDTA-conjugated blood samples at room temperature or under insufficient cooling conditions results in various morphological changes such as swelling of the blood cells. These changes are reproducible and have already been described well. However, they can lead to incorrect flagging when using automated hematology analyzers for complete blood counts and white blood cell differentials. The aim of this study was to determine if those changes can be detected automatically and used to prevent false positive flagging.
Methods: 150 blood samples were aged under controlled conditions and the impact on the “Aged sample” software was checked retrospectively. The results were verified in a second retrospective study including 6288 routine samples.
Results: When tested in a routine laboratory, the “Aged sample” software was able to reduce overall flagging by 23% without increasing false negative flagging.
Conclusions: The “Aged sample” software of XN-Series analyzers does not only detect and flag samples that are aging or were stored under suboptimal conditions but also prevents false positive flagging.

DOI: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2014.140412