RISC PROCESSOR FOR RED CELL VOLUME DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS

THE PHASE I RESEARCH WILL DEMONSTRATE THE TECHNICAL MERIT AND FEASIBILITY OF ROUTINE ANALYSIS OF RED CELL VOLUME DISTRIBUTIONS IN THE DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATION OF ANEMIA USING A DEDICATED CONTROLLER WITH A REDUCED-INSTRUCTION-SET-COMPUTER (RISC) MICROPROCESSOR. CURRENT AUTOMATED HEMATOLOGY ANALYZERS MEASURE THE VOLUME OF EACH RED CELL, PROVIDING THE RED CELL COLUMN DISTRIBUTION. PROCEDURES DEVELOPED BY OUR CONSULTANTS, MCLAREN AND BRITTENHAM (19,20,21), HAVE BEEN ADOPTED BY THE EXPERT PANEL ON CYTOMETRY OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION IN HEMATOLOGY (ISCH) FOR INCLUSION AS AN ICSH REFERENCE METHOD IN THEIR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE STANDARDIZATION OF CELL SIZE DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS (12). TO DATE USE OF THE ISCH REFERENCE METHOD HAS BEEN RESTRICTED TO RESEARCH APPLICATIONS BECAUSE OF THE COMPUTATIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE ITERATIVE PROCEDURES. THE MAJOR GOAL OF THE PHASE I PROJECT IS TO IMPLEMENT THE ISCH REFERENCE METHOD FOR CELL VOLUME ANALYSIS UTILIZING A DEDICATED RISC-BASED MICROPROCESSOR THAT WILL PERMIT ROUTINE USE WITH COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE AUTOMATED HEMATOLOGY ANALYZERS OPERATING IN A CLINICAL LABORATORY. A COMPUTERIZED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ISCH REFERENCE METHOD IS CLINICALLY NEEDED TO MAKE GENERALLY AVAILABLE THE NEW DIAGNOSTIC INFORMATION DERIVED FROM CURRENT ELECTRONIC PARTICLE COUNTERS AND WOULD PROVIDE USEFUL, COST-EFFECTIVE APPROACH TO IMPROVING THE EVALUATION AND MANAGEMENT OF ANEMIA.