Cell-counting method for blood hemolysis analysis in fragility measurement

Abstract

A method of using cell counting to determine how much hemolysis occurs when a sample of red blood cells is subjected to stress, for purposes of either assessing stored blood quality and/or obtaining red blood cell fragility profiles. Cell-counting techniques and technologies can be employed to facilitate and enhance fragility measurements of red blood cells. There are many ways such “counting” can be achieved, including by visually counting each cell appearing under a microscope and projecting an estimated concentration based thereupon, or by utilizing a range of automatable technologies of various means. Using sophisticated image analysis algorithms, some such technologies also provide useful information about cell features or properties such as average size, distribution of sizes or volumes, and viability. Using cell counting to analyze post-stress hemolysis also permits conducting fragility assays without requiring centrifugation or other separation.

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