Patent ID: 7674622

Claim:
A method for enumeration of nucleated red blood cells and total white blood cells from the same sample of blood comprising the steps of: (a) providing a lysed sample of whole blood; (b) subjecting the lysed sample to a multi-scattering depolarizing flow cytometer; (c) removing depolarizing interference by using data collected by 90° depolarized scatter and 0° scatter detectors; (d) differentiating (i) nucleated red blood cells and noise from (ii) white blood cells in the absence of depolarizing interference, wherein white blood cells are differentiated from noise and nucleated red blood cells by using data collected by 0° scatter and 10° scatter detectors; (e) differentiating (i) nucleated red blood cells from (ii) noise in the absence of depolarizing interference and white blood cells, wherein noise is differentiated from nucleated red blood cells by using data collected by 0° scatter and 10° scatter detectors; (f) differentiating (i) possible platelet clumps from (ii) white blood cells, wherein possible platelet clumps are differentiated from white blood cells by using data collected by 90° scatter detector, and (g) counting nucleated red blood cells and total white blood cells in the lysed sample of whole blood without providing a white blood cell differential analysis.