The safety and efficacy of weekly rituximab 375 mg/m 2 (؋4), given within 3 days of acute TTP admission, with standard therapy (PEX and steroids) was evaluated. Clinical outcomes were compared to historical controls (n ‫؍‬ 40) who had not received rituximab. Within the trial group, 15 of 40 required ICU admission and 15% of all cases with the highest troponin T levels on admission were ventilated. Before the second rituximab infusion, 68% of cases had a platelet count > 50 ؋ 10 9 /L and 38% > 150 ؋ 10 9 /L. Fewer PEX were required in whites compared to nonwhite in the rituximab group (mean 14 vs 21, P ‫؍‬ .0095). Inpatient stay was reduced by 7 days in the non-ICU trial cases compared to historical controls (P ‫؍‬ .04), especially in whites, with a mean reduction of 7 days (P ‫؍‬ .05). Ten percent of trial cases relapsed, median, 27 months (17-31 months), compared to 57% in historical controls, median 18 months (3-60 months; P ‫؍‬ .0011).There were no excess infections or serious adverse events with rituximab. In conclusion, rituximab appears a safe and effective therapy. Inpatient stay and relapse are significantly reduced in the rituximab cohort. Rituximab should be considered in conjunction with standard therapy on acute presentation of TTP. This study was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT009-3713. (Blood. 2011;118(7): 1746-1753)

The XN showed reduced sample turnaround time of 10% and reduced number of blood films for examination, 49% less than the XE-2100 without loss of sensitivity with more precise and accurate results on low cell counts.

Automation of differentials is desirable for economic and time-saving reasons. Over the last 20 years, automated imaging processes have started to be introduced where stained blood films are scanned by a computer-driven microscope and leucocytes classified; however, early methods were slow and had difficulty in classifying abnormal cells. More recently the CellaVision DM96 (CellaVision AB, Lund, Sweden) has been introduced with added features such as continuous loading of slides and a faster throughput than previous instruments. The accuracy of CellaVision DM96 has been evaluated by comparing results to reference manual differentials. Results from different operators using the DM96 were compared with their own manual differential and to a 400-cell reference manual differential. Precision of the instrument was compared to the manual differential. The preclassification accuracy of the DM96 was 89.2%. Precision was similar to that of the 100-cell manual differential. The DM96 was faster than the manual method, even after reclassification by a laboratory scientist of any cells wrongly categorized by the instrument. The DM96 accuracy in morphological classification of leucocytes and red blood cells; depends upon both blood pathology and experience of the laboratory scientist using the instrument. For some cell types and operators, DM96 accuracy was better than the individual's 100 cell manual differential.