Simultaneous differentiation and quantitation of erythroblasts and white blood cells on a high throughput clinical haematology analyser.

After the neonatal period, the presence of nucleated red blood cells (NRBC) in peripheral blood is indicative of pathology. Despite the clinical utility of such measurements, automated NRBC counting has hitherto not been available on routine automated blood cell counting analysers. To address this, an automated method for the analysis of NRBC was developed and incorporated into the Abbott Cell Dyn 4000 (CD4000) haematology analyser.

Coma canceling monochromator with no slit mismatch.

A new plane grating monochromator is described which uses off-axis parabolas. The optical arrangement is such that extremely sharp spectral line images of constant curvature are realized at mirror angles large enough to prohibit the possibility of multiple dispersion.