A new method, published in Cytometry part B, uses DRAQ5 to gate all nucleated cells, FlowCount beads, a panel of 6 antibodies
in 4 clusters and the 5 fluorescence channels - plus forward and side scatter - on the Beckman Coulter FC500 flow cytometer to get a comprehensive analysis of both nucleated cells
and platelets in blood or bone marrow samples. Ten separate classes of nucleated cells could be identified. The one-tube, lyse-no wash method gave excellent correlation to both cell counters and microscopy and offers a real alternative to the laborious manual scoring of blood smears from samples flagged by the cell counter. This method could offer an effective replacement for the subjective, labour-intensive and statistically-limited analysis by manual microscopy.