Manual hematology techniques traditionally applied in farm animal medicine are time consuming and laborintensive, especially when large numbers of samples have to be processed. As a result, several automated hematology instruments have been developed for use in these species. An automated hematology analyzer (Abbott Cell-Dyne 3500 system) was used in performing a complete blood cell count and differential counts of white blood cells in sheep blood samples. The system was compared with basic manual hematologic techniques. A linear regression was used to assess correlation between the two methods. Correlation coefficients (R2) were good for the hematocrit, the total white blood cell count, the neutrophils, the lymphocytes and the platelet count, while a poor correlation existed in monocytes, eosinophils and basophils. The automated and the manual technique were also compared in terms of sensitivity using the Sensitivity Ratio (SR). The automated analyzer was slightly more sensitive than the manual technique for all parameters tested except for monocytes, eosinophils and basophils were the difference was greater and the automated analyzer was 1.5, 2.5 and 2 times more reliable, respectively. The method bias was also calculated. It seems that the overall performance of the automated analyzer justifies its utilization in sheep blood analysis, although as for any analyzer used in any species, a stained blood film evaluation remains an indispensable technique to confirm the results being reported by the automated analyzer and provide additional information for the ovine haemogram.
Fibrinogen is a glycoprotein that plays a key role in blood clotting and is also a non-specific indicator of inflammation. The most widely used techniques for measuring plasma fibrinogen concentration include heat precipitation (Millar's technique) and modified thrombin clotting time (Clauss method). Both techniques have been automated in a haematology analyzer (QBC-Vet Autoreader®, IDEXX; Millar's technique) and in a newly developed semi-automatic mechanical and optical detection coagulometer (MC1 Plus®, DIASys Greiner GmbH; Clauss method). The purpose of this study was to compare the results of the above mentioned techniques for the measurement of fibrinogen concentration in the plasma of dogs. Fibrinogen concentrations were measured with both techniques in the plasma of 85 clinically normal dogs and of 43 dogs with diseases that have been previously associated with dysfibrinogenemia. Passing-Bablock's regression and Bland Altman difference plots were used for the comparison of the results of the two techniques. No correlation was found between the results of the two techniques; thus the two techniques cannot be used interchangeably. Measurement of fibrinogen concentration with the heat precipitation method is more applicable for single sample analysis, while the modified thrombin clotting time method is more practical for analyzing stored frozen samples and thus for research purposes.
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