Differences in Hematological Data for Patient Blood Samples Stored to Control the Quality of Automated Cell Counter in Laboratories

Abstract

Routine quality control for automated cell counter is generally performed twice daily, in the morning and the afternoon by using expensive commercial control materials. To evaluate the use of patient samples as quality control materials, some tested patient samples from the morning were re-analyzed during a re-check period in the afternoon to evaluate the differences in 6 hematological parameters including white blood cells (WBC), red blood cells (RBC), hemoglobin (HGB), hematocrit (HCT), mean cell volume (MCV) and platelets (PLT) between the morning and the afternoon values. Study was performed over a period of one month using 204 patient blood samples (69 normal level, 62 high level and 73 low level). It was found that for 5 parameters, i.e. WBC, RBC, HGB, HCT, and MCV, analysis in the afternoon from normal level and low level samples were not different from the morning results (P > 0.10). However, the PLT values were statistically significant difference (P < 0.01) between morning and afternoon.  No difference was observed on all six parameters for samples with high levels (P > 0.10). Thus, patients samples analyzed in the morning can be used as quality control samples for automated cell counter in the afternoon testing of WBC, RBC, HGB, HCT, MCV and PLT.