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8216183 
Journal Article 
Evaluation of the white blood cell morphology flags of the Beckman Coulter HmX hematology analyzer 
De Metz, M; Van Der Stappen, JWJ; Helmink, A 
2002 
0 
Laboratory Hematology
ISSN: 1080-2924 
8 
1 
7-9 
English 
The performance of the Beckman Coulter HmX hematology analyzer in generating suspect messages for morphological white blood cell abnormalities was evaluated. We measured 282 randomly selected blood samples on the HmX and Bayer H3 hematology analyzers. Furthermore, 195 selected samples with abnormal blood cell counts and/or morphology suspect flags on the H3 were measured on the HmX. A white blood cell differentiation was performed microscopically with a 200-cell count. Sensitivity and specificity of the HmX suspect flags for white blood cell abnormalities were 77% and 87%, respectively, a performance comparable with that of the H3. The suspect flags for immature granulocytes had a sensitivity of 81% on the HmX. Minor left shifts were not always detected with the HmX. Blasts were flagged with a sensitivity of 75%. The false-negative samples contained less than 3% blasts. The sensitivities for the detection of variant lymphocytes and nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs) were 83% and 33%, respectively. The positive predictive value (PPV) of the 2 combined suspect flags for immature granulocytes was 29%. The flag for the presence of band forms gave a PPV of 15%, and the flag for granulocytes more immature than band forms gave a PPV of 58%. The PPVs of the suspect flags for variant lymphocytes, blasts, and NRBCs were 56%, 47%, and 14%, respectively. We consider the performance of the suspect messages of the HmX to be good, With the exception of the NRBC flag. 
Automated leukocyte differentiation; Suspect flags