Leukemic blasts detected by the Technicon H-1 blood cell counter

The authors studied the usefulness of the flagging system of the Technicon H-1 Cell Counter using samples from 45 patients with acute leukemia, 24 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and 21 with acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL). Results by the automated method were compared with those by the eye-count method. Four out of 24 specimens were falsely negative; no false positive results were found. For ANLL specimens, there were no false positives or negatives. When 1% or more of the cells were blasts by the eye-count method, the automated system almost always flagged the sample. The results suggested that the flagging system programmed in the H-1 is useful for the diagnosis and follow-up of leukemia.