Hematology Analyzer Pulse Acquisition

Analyses were performed on residual EDTA K3-anticoagulated blood samples initially collected for blood cell count as part of standard care. For both patients and controls, routine blood cell counts were performed on Sysmex XN^™ hematology analyzer (Sysmex France, Villepinte, France). In addition, samples were analyzed with a mock-up derived from the ABX Micros 60 (HORIBA Medical), for the recording of the electrical pulses induced by RBC in an aperture-electrode system (also called Coulter-based system). The pulses acquisition is performed by a LabVIEW^™ (National Instruments) code, as presented before [3 (link), 4 (link)]. The mock-up differs from the commercial version ABX Micros 60, with an electronic bandwidth increased to 150 kHz. This modification guarantees a high-quality signal and a reliable electrical pulse processing. Commercial ABX Diluent was used (HORIBA Medical). Unlike some routine hematological analyzers, there is no need to spherize RBC prior acquisition and no hydrodynamical focusing is used with this device. All acquisitions were performed at room temperature. The original parameters derived from the pulse’s acquisitions are introduced in the following section.