Comparative study of human red blood cell analysis with three different field-flow fractionation systems

An extensive multi-laboratory study was conducted to compare three different field-flow fractionation (FFF) systems for use in the analysis of human erythrocytes. The object of this study was to determine the relationship between the FFF elution properties for each system and the traditional hematological blood cell parameters. One centrifugal system (Utah) and two gravitational systems (Paris and Abbott) were compared. In order to analyze erythrocyte populations with a broad range of hematological indices, blood samples were collected from individuals heterozygous for sickle cell anemia (A/S) and also from normal controls (A/A), and these were analyzed at each site. Identical samples were analyzed by the Abbott and Utah sites. With all three systems, blood samples from each category produced narrow, overlapping distributions of FFF retention ratios, with the Abbott and Utah systems showing slight elevations in the mean retention ratios for the sickle cell samples. Blood cell elution peak characteristics were compared with standard hematological parameters for each of the FFF systems, and negative correlations were consistently found between mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and retention ratios. Positive correlations were found between red cell distribution width (RDW) and retention ratios. Elevated FFF retention ratios were frequently found with blood samples having abnormal hematological profiles. These results demonstrate that the three differently configured systems all produce similar analysis profiles for erythrocytes from the classes studied here. The relationships between FFF parameters and hematological indices were consistent for all systems.