Objective To evaluate the feasibility of whole blood sample preservation with Cyto-Chex BCT tube for the quality control of T lymphocyte subset counting.
Methods The fresh whole blood samples were transferred to Cyto-Chex BCT tubes at the end of the routine CD4 test and stored at 4℃. The T lymphocyte subsets were counted every 4 days continuously for 56 days. Multi-level growth model was adopted in data analysis.
Results Totally 46 consecutive samples of whole blood samples were obtained for the study. The correlation coefficients among CD3/CD4/CD8 cell counts at the first test and the each of all consecutive tests were greater than 0.9 and all the coefficients of variation for the cell counts were less than 15% except for only 10 count results. Based on the results of multi-level growth model analysis, the number of CD3/CD4/CD8 count declined with time by 1.46 cells per day averagely.
Conclusion Whole blood sample preserved using Cyto-Chex BCT tube can be used in internal quality control and management of CD4 detection because of good stability of CD3/CD4/CD8 cells in the samples under preservation.
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