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Updated: Jul 3, 2026
Measuring Deformability and Red Cell Heterogeneity in Blood by Ektacytometry
Published on: January 12, 2018
Pre-analytical variation of some haematological quantities
Mariona García-Panyella1, Ariadna Padró-Miquel, Dolors Dot-Bach
1Laboratori Clínic, IDIBELL--Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain.
Background:
It is customary to assume that pre-analytical variation is negligible if all pre-analytical sources of variation have been standardised. The aim of this study was to quantify the pre-analytical variation of some haematological quantities frequently measured in clinical laboratories.
Methods:
The experimental design considers different sources of pre-analytical variation that usually occur day-to-day for samples from patients.
Results:
The results demonstrate that for concentrations of erythrocytes, haemoglobin, leukocytes, neutrophilocytes (segmented) and lymphocytes, and for the volume fraction of erythrocytes ("packed cell volume") in blood, the pre-analytical variance is not negligible.
Conclusions:
We suggest that these variances should be taken into account when estimating the uncertainty of measurement for patient results.
