Performance evaluation of BC-3200 hematology analyzer in a university hospital

The BC-3200 automated hematology analyzer was evaluated and compared with the Beckman-Coulter AcT (Ac.T diff 2) 3-part differential hematology analyzer. The BC-3200 was evaluated according to guidelines published by the International Committee for Standardization in Hematology (ICSH), Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), and Department of Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The results demonstrated no background, minimal carryover (<0.5%), and excellent linearity for hemoglobin (Hb) level, white blood cell (WBC), red blood cell (RBC), and platelet (PLT) counts (>0.998). Precision was generally acceptable for all complete blood count (CBC) parameters; coefficients of variation (CVs) were within the manufacturer's claims and CVs of CBC parameters, including WBC, RBC and PLT counts, Hb and mean corpuscular volume, were <6%. Correlation between the BC-3200 and Ac.T diff 2 was excellent (r > 0.98) for all major CBC parameters (WBC, RBC, and PLT counts and Hb). We conclude that the overall performance of the BC-3200 is excellent and compares well with that of the Coulter Ac.T diff 2.