Performance of the new MC‐80 automated digital cell morphology analyser in detection of normal and abnormal blood cells: Comparison with the CellaVision DM9600

Abstract Introduction Mindray MC‐80 is an automated system for digital imaging of white blood cells (WBCs) and their pre‐classification. The objective of this work is to analyse its performance comparing it with the CellaVision® DM9600. Methods A total of 445 samples were used, 194 normal and 251 abnormal: acute leukaemia (100), myelodysplastic syndromes/myeloproliferative neoplasms (33), lymphoid neoplasms (50), plasma cell neoplasms (14), infections (49) and thrombocytopenia (5). WBC pre‐classification values with the MC‐80 and DM9600 were compared with (1) the microscope, (2) Mindray BC‐6800Plus differentials in only normal samples, and (3) confirmed or reclassified images (post‐classification). Pearson's correlation, Lin's concordance, Passing‐Bablok regression, and Bland–Altman plots were used. Sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV) and negative (NPV) predictive values for abnormal cells using the MC‐80 were calculated. Results The PPV and NPV were above 98% and 99%, for normal samples. For immature granulocytes (IG), NPV and PPV were 100% and 74.2%. When comparing the WBC differentials using the MC‐80, the microscope and the BC‐6800Plus, no differences were found except for basophils and IG. Our results showed good agreement between the pre‐ and post‐classification of normal WBC, including IG, quantified by high correlation and concordance values (0.91–1). Sensitivity and specificity for blasts were 0.984 and 0.640. The MC‐80 detected abnormal lymphocytes in 30% of the smears from patients with lymphoid neoplasm. Plasma cell identification was better using the DM9600. The sensitivity and specificity for erythroblast detection were 1 and 0.890. Conclusion We found that the MC‐80 shows high performance for WBC differentials for both normal samples and patients with haematological diseases.