Portable microscopic cell counter for the determination of residual leucocytes in blood components

Background and Objectives: The accurate determination of residual white blood cell (WBC) in blood components is of considerable clinical importance, and a variety of methods have been devised for the counting of low levels of residual WBC. In this study, we evaluated the performance of microscopic cell counter with microchannel plastic chip (C-reader') with regard to its ability to quantify WBC in WBC-reduced red cell concentrates. Materials and Methods: In order to quantify residual WBC with the microscopic cell counter, WBC-reduced red cell concentrate was stained using propidium iodide. Three studies were performed: linearity, precision and correlation compared to those of manual Nageotte chamber counting and automatic flow cytometric methods. Results: Dilution experiments, conducted over a range of 0.7-712 WBC/μl, showed a linearity of r² > 0.999, with coefficient of variation values of ≤ 15.6% and accuracy of 93.8% over all tested ranges. In comparison with the Nageotte chamber counting and flow cytometric methods, the correlation coefficients were r² > 0.995. The detection limit of this method was 0.24 WBC/μl. Total analysis time per sample was approximately 5 min. Conclusion: The microscopic cell counter for residual WBC counting was determined to be efficient at the level of currently defined standards, with acceptable precision and accuracy. This method may prove useful for the quality assurance and control of WBC-depleted blood products.