Performance Evaluation of Fully Automated Reticulocyte Count As A Validated Method In Comparison with Manual Count In Neonates
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51253/pafmj.v75iSUPPL-6.8010Keywords:
Reticulocyte count, Automation, Haematology analyzers.Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the performance of fully automated reticulocyte count as a validated method in comparison with manual count in neonates.
Study Design: cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: Department of Haematology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), from July 2020 to December 2020.
Methodology: 103 healthy neonates of either gender were selected using non-probability convenience sampling. Venous blood of the participants was collected and reticulocyte count was determined using both manual count as well as Sysmex XN-3000 Automated Haematology Analyzer. The data was recorded, tabulated and processed to ascertain the degree of correlation and agreement between the two methods using Linear Regression Analysis and Bland-Altman plot respectively.
Results: The mean age of participants was 14 days. Out of the total of 103 participants, gender-wise distribution was 55(53%) males and 48(47%) females. The mean manual reticulocyte count was 2.0+1.1% and automated reticulocyte count was 2.0+ 1.0%. The two sets of data showed good correlation with a coefficient of correlation (r) of 0.97. The mean bias of data was 0.002 with good agreement as all recorded data points fell between upper and lower limits of agreement.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that automated haematology analyzers can offer a high-throughput method of determining reticulocyte count with an adequately close agreement of results to the well-established manual method.
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