ABSTRACT

Background:

Counting of cells in sterile body fluids other than blood and urine provides important diagnostic information. The aim of the study is to evaluate the performance of the body fluid module of Sysmex UF-1000i system in comparison with cell counting chamber results.

Methods:

71 routinely collected sterile body fluid samples were evaluated. The samples were cerebrospinal fluid, peritoneal fluid, pleural fluid, synovial fluid, drain fluid and bile. Cell counts were simultaneously determined with both bright lined Neubauer Cell Counting Chamber® (Marienfeld, Germany) and Sysmex UF-1000i BF (Sysmex, Japan) according to the manufacturers’ recommendations. The results were evaluated statistically with interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and related p- values were calculated.

Results:

There were seven purulent samples. Outliers were seen between microscopic examination and Sysmex UF-1000i results with purulent samples. The difference between the cell counts of the two methods was 1979 cells (cells/ml) with outliers, and 69 cells (cells/ml) without outliers. The ICC with and without outliers were 0.128 and 0.963, respectively. With outliers, correlation between the two methods was not statistically significant (p=0.139). Without outliers, correlation between two methods was statistically significant (p<0.001) and good agreement was observed.

Conclusions:

our results showed that especially for macroscopically purulent samples, counting chambers would still be the best choice for WBC counting, however for macroscopically non-purulent samples Sysmex UF1000i is a good alternative instrument for rapid workflow especially in routine microbiology laboratory in sterile body fluids other than blood and urine.