[Detection of immature granulocytes and atypical and/or abnormal lymphocytes using scatterplots of Coulter STKS].

Scatterplots of the Coulter STKS were studied in order to make better analyses of morphological abnormality of leukocytes. The analytical pattern of a sample failed to completely prevent blood coagulation, especially platelet aggregation, showed the poor separation between lymphocyte and neutrophil populations. On the scatterplot, a small population was occasionally observed in the lower area of normal lymphocyte population with elevation of room temperature, being thought an artificial population. When atypical and/or abnormal lymphocytes increased, the pattern was characterized by the distribution of large lymphoid cells spreading over monocyte population area. The characteristics became clear in proportion to the percentage of large lymphoid cells. To detect immature granulocytes, we introduced a criterion originated in our laboratory. Using the detection criterion, we could obtain the satisfactory results with sensitivity of 85%, specificity of 93%, efficiency of 91% and coefficient correlation (r) of 0.73. It is concluded that the pattern analysis and the detection criterion are useful in the experiments using routine laboratory samples and valuable in clinical implication.