Evaluation of a single-platform microcapillary flow cytometer for enumeration of absolute CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts in HIV-1 infected Thai patients.

Background: Various assays are used to enumerate peripheral blood absolute CD4+ T-lymphocytes. Flow cytometry is considered the gold standard for this purpose. However, the high cost of available flow cytometers and monoclonal antibody reagents make it difficult to implement such methods in the resource-poor settings.

Evaluation of a new single-parameter volumetric flow cytometer (CyFlow(green)) for enumeration of absolute CD4+ T lymphocytes in human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected Thai patients.

Use of the standard dual-platform flow cytometric method for determination of CD4(+) T-lymphocyte counts, which needs both a flow cytometer (FCM) and hematological analyzer, would inevitably lead to increased variability. The development of new single-platform (SP) FCMs that provide direct CD4(+) T-lymphocyte counts for improved assay precision and accuracy have recently attracted attention. This study evaluated one of those systems, CyFlow(green) (Partec), a single-parameter SP volumetric FCM.