Patent ID: 8364418

Claim:
A kit for automated performance of an integrated software-fluorescent microbeads standards system, said kit comprising: monoclonal antibodies labeled with one or more fluorochromes; microbeads comprising the same one or more fluorochromes used for labeling the antibodies; and a computer readable non-transitory medium containing a software program for implementation on a computer, wherein: the software program is matched to specific lots of microbead standards and fluorescent-labeled mixtures of monoclonal antibodies and includes information on the fluorescence intensity of each population of microbeads; for each batch of microbeads and fluorescent reagents, the associated software program includes information on the fluorescence intensity of each population of microbeads within the batch; the software program takes information on a suspension of the microbeads and the fluorescent labeled antibodies bound to cells from a flow cytometer and analyzes data, smooth curves, calculates new parameters, provides quality control measures and indicates the expiration of the microbeads and fluorescent labeled antibodies; the software program alerts the operator and further interrogates the users to verify the assay lot in use and the type of flow cytometric instrument employed as part of the specimen analysis; the software program records results in a cumulative file history to provide comprehensive documentation of an instrument's performance; the software program normalizes the bias or difference in fluorescent expression between different production lots by a factor determined by regression analysis between lots and changes in the fluorescent value assigned to the microbeads within the software program; the software program monitors comparisons of data of different microbead production lots and fluorescent labeled antibody production lots on different biologic samples to determine whether the microbeads are within the required range of fluorescence intensity to insure that levels of imprecision between lots is ≦5%; and if desired, determines the actual amount of fluorescent antibody bound by the specimen cells through the use of external standards.