Patent ID: 8097429

Claim:
A method to diagnose a disease state in a patient, by detecting and phenotyping live target cells in cell suspensions to determine an antigenic finger-print of the live target cells, the method using particles coated with antibodies directed against antigenic determinants/receptors expressed on the target cells, wherein the method comprises: incubating 2 to 6 antibodies under gentle rotation for about 5 minutes to about 2 hours with cell suspensions containing the live target cells at 0° C. to 25° C., all of the antibodies being directed against independent antigenic determinants/receptors expressed on the same cells, wherein each antibody is conjugated to a visually different fluorescent or dyed non-fluorescent particle with at least one of the particles being a fluorescent particle and at least one of the particles being a dyed non-fluorescent particle, said particles capable of being instrumentally or visually separated from the other particles by differing sizes, fluorescent emission spectra, and/or colors, each particle ranging in size from about 0.01 μm to about 6 μm, wherein the ratio between the number of particles and the number of cells ranges from about 0.5:1 to about 20:1; followed by an enrichment procedure that enriches the cell suspensions for the live target cells; and diagnosing the disease state by determining the antigenic fingerprint of the live target cells via evaluation of the live target cell rosettes microscopically by fluorescence microscope visualizing or imaging devices, and evaluating the antigenic fingerprint to determine the presence or absence of the disease state.