Combined accurate platelet enumeration and reticulated platelet determination by flow cytometry.

Background: Diagnosing the cause of thrombocytopenia often requires a bone marrow aspiration or biopsy, an invasive procedure. Reticulated platelets (RP) are immature RNA containing platelets, accurate RP enumeration has yet to be achieved, partially due to the lack of a robust reference method.

Goal: To refine previous work and gating strategies distinguishing RP from mature platelets while incorporating accurate platelet enumeration into the analysis.