Evaluation of Mindray BC-6800 body fluid mode for automated cerebrospinal fluid cell counting

Cellular analysis in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) provides important diagnostic information in various medical conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the application of Mindray BC-6800 body fluid (BF) mode in cytometric analysis of CSF compared to light microscopy (LM).

One hundred and twenty-nine consecutive CSF samples were analyzed by BC-6800-BF mode as well as by LM. The study also included limits of blank (LoB), limit of detection (LoD), limit of quantitation (LoQ), carryover and linearity. Results White blood cells LoQ was 4.0×106 cells/L. Linearity was good and carryover was negligible. As for the total and white blood cells, the BC-6800-BF parameters vs. LM showed both bias ranged from -10.28 to 0.06×106 cells/L. Polymorphonuclear and mononuclear cells ranged from 6.64 to 10.90%. For white blood cell the diagnostic agreement was 93% at the cut-off >5.0×106 cells/L, and for polymorphonuclear and mononuclear at the cut-off >50% was 91% and 92%, respectively.

BC-6800-BF offers rapid and accurate counts in clinically relevant concentration ranges, replacing LM for most samples. However, in samples with abnormal cell counts or with abnormal white blood cell differential scattergrams the need to microscopic review for a correct clinical outcome remains.