Evaluation of ABX Pentra DX 120 and Sysmex XE-2100 in umbilical cord blood

Summary Introduction Cord blood (CB) is an important source of hematopoietic stem cells and reflects the hematologic status of neonates. ABX Pentra DX 120 (Horiba Medical, Montpellier, France) and Sysmex XE‐2100 (Sysmex, Kobe, Japan) were compared in 200 CB specimens. Methods Complete blood count parameters including white blood cell (WBC) differential counts were compared between the two analyzers. Double differential matrix (DDX) by ABX Pentra DX 120 and hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC) by Sysmex XE‐2100 were compared with CD34+ cells by flow cytometry. Results Most of the parameters showed acceptable correlation between the two analyzers. Although WBC differential of both analyzers showed acceptable correlation with manual counts, mononuclear cells (MNC) by ABX Pentra DX 120 better correlated with manual count than MNC by Sysmex XE‐2100. NRBC by Sysmex XE‐2100 better correlated with manual count than NRBC by ABX Pentra DX 120. ABX Pentra DX 120 showed better flagging performances. DDX better correlated with CD34+ cells than HPC. Conclusion Although the results from both analyzers are mostly interchangeable and reliable in CB specimens, flagging performance of ABX Pentra DX 120 seems to be superior to that of Sysmex XE‐2100. DDX by ABX Pentra DX 120 would be valuable to evaluate the quality of CB for further therapeutic utilization.