Comparison of lymphocyte immunophenotypes obtained simultaneously from two different data acquisition and analysis systems on the same flow cytometer

Immunophenotyping of different lymphocyte populations was carried out in parallel on 113 consecutively received specimens of human peripheral blood using 2 different data acquisition and analysis systems (EPICS C and 4Cyte-Acmecyte) on the same flow cytometer (EPICS C). The phenotypes analyzed were CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ CD56+ CD16+ CD3-, TCR-gamma delta+ CD8-, and TCR-gamma delta+ CD8+. Both HIV- and HIV+ specimens were used for this study, including some with CD4 levels as low as 2% of all lymphocytes. Despite differences in gating procedures and shapes of bitmap (rectilinear vs. "amorphous"), the 2 methods agreed to within 2% positive cells in 97% of the cases. Although some statistically significant biases in the methods were observed, these were small and not biologically important. We conclude that both methods of data acquisition and analysis, as employed by experienced operators on the EPICS C flow cytometer, gave essentially equivalent results for lymphocyte sub-populations in peripheral blood preparations.