Sysmex Smear Workflow
Enter the captivating world of blood cell morphology
The judgment of an abnormal blood smear is an art. Therefore, a well-made blood smear is essential for optimal microscopy examination of the blood cell differential.
Nowadays, morphology experts are not alone. Powerful tools exist to support them in preventing errors and inconsistencies common with manual blood smear preparation and interpretation.
We are passionate about the beauty of well-prepared blood smears and the clinical insights that can be discovered from cell morphology.
The Sysmex Smear Workflow is a unique concept that optimises the preparation of peripheral blood smears for automated digital morphology. Increase productivity and quality, all while minimising contact with biohazardous material.
A good quality smear, thorough examination and proper interpretation in line with the patient's clinical state should be ensured by the haematology pathologist. With the Sysmex Smear Workflow, we make this possible.
ecosight™: The green way of blood smear preparation for high workloads
Have you been cautious until now to switch your smear preparation workflow to a more environmentally friendly and sustainable variant, fearing a disruption to your established workflow and/or negative reactions due to a change in quality of the morphology images? This is well understandable.
Now, it’s safe to make this move. With the ecosight™ smear workflow, you can experience all the advantages of methanol-free working without noticing any difference in your workflow. In fact, it’s an effortless transition altogether. Preparation for the change is minimal, and there won’t be any loss in quality of your cell morphology images – you may even notice a slight improvement, so cell judgement won’t be impaired by the new procedure.
The MCDh Zero methanol-free staining is a large plus for the working environment. Blast cells have a very characteristic cytoplasm and nuclear staining which makes them easier to distinguish in the MCDh Zero-staining than in the MGG staining.
ecosight™ helps you take the ‘m’ out of methanol: it’s ethanol from now on
With MCDh Zero, the ethanol-based staining reagents used in our ecosight™ concept, you will achieve a greener smear workflow and cell morphology analysis – without compromising on staining quality and cell morphology appearance.
Developed by the renowned RAL Diagnostics, and carefully tested and validated by Sysmex and CellaVision on the SP-50 and DI-60, we can assure staining results are consistent with conventional staining protocols, but also with smear workflow results in smaller labs, where methanol-free MCDh reagents were successfully introduced several years ago. This means you can finally align all cell morphology procedures and their level of sustainability across all of your lab sites.
Blood smear preparation for smaller workloads
The Sysmex Smear Workflow for smaller laboratories comprises the HemaPrep® and RAL StainBox with methanol-free reagents, combined with the CellaVision® DC-1. The concept seamlessly covers the whole haematology workflow so that you can provide results with consistently high quality.
ecosight™: Zero methanol. 100% quality.
ecosight™ is the green smear workflow for high-throughput environments. It comprises the automated slide preparation unit SP-50, the digital imaging analyser DI-60, and the set of four methanol-free, Romanowsky-derived reagent components of MCDh Zero for pre-fixation, staining, buffering and rinsing.
The ecosight™ smear workflow components can be integrated into the haematology workstations XR-1500 and XR-3000, and the automation line XR-9000. They may also be operated stand-alone.
Transition from conventional to ecosight™ workflows requires only new spout kits and a software update. That’s all.
Benefits at a glance:
- Reduce toxic exposure and create a safer workplace
- Simplify safety infrastructure incl. storage conditions
- Eliminate methanol recovery procedures
- Cut down on operational costs
- Support environmental policies and sustainability goals
- Maintain quality and consistency of staining results and pattern recognition
- Uniquely designed for SP-50
- Unify your procedures: align your core lab with methanol-free workflows present in your satellite labs
MCDh reagents – bringing cells to life
Benefits at a glance:
- no fume cupboard required
- no reagent preparation needed: ready-to-use at your convenience
- open stability of 28 days
- standard and user-defined staining protocols
- adapted protocol for staining bone marrow slides
The methanol-free Micro Chromatic Detection for haematology (MCDh) reagents apply a panoptic staining method similar to the classic May-Grünwald-Giemsa/Wright stains for blood smears but have added benefits.
Thanks to the exceptional appearance of the cells, you will save time and feel confident that no details will be missed during morphological analysis, as well as the fact that results will be comparable and reproducible.
For high-workload smear workflows using the SP-50 and DI-60, we offer a methanol-free variant with ecosight™. More information can be found right here on this page, under the ‘ecosight™’ tab.
HemaPrep® – it all starts with a good smear
Benefits at a glance:
- Produce high-quality blood smears – only little experience needed
- Control smear length with the variable slide-making speed
- Portable device
- No power source needed
- Packaging includes two extra spreader blades
The HemaPrep® is a small mechanical, semi-automated device for the standardised preparation of up to two peripheral blood smears at a time.
The HemaPrep® makes producing consistently high-quality blood smears easy. With just a single action, the semi-automatic slider distributes the cells evenly on the smear. The standardised and high-quality appearance of the cells helps improve morphological assessment. Both the length and thickness of the blood smear can be adjusted by changing the speed of the smear preparation step.
Using the HemaPrep®, also less experienced technicians can produce blood smears in a reproducible manner. The variability in smear quality between operators is reduced, which ensures reproducible results, particularly if a standardised staining process follows the slide preparation step.
RAL StainBox – staining made easy
RAL StainBox benefits at a glance:
- staining phases are monitored
- minimal routine maintenance
- out-of-the-box, methanol-free reagents
- RFID (radio frequency identification) technology for storing reagent traceability data
A skilfully stained slide is a crucial step in the smear workflow and is a delicate process. The semi-automated RAL StainBox is easy to use and produces the optimal staining result for your peripheral blood or bone marrow smears. The staining procedure is standardised through a software-controlled process, thereby giving your morphology assessments a uniform basis.
It is also optional to substitute the RAL StainBox with the RAL Stainer.
CellaVision® DC-1 – great things come in small packages
CellaVision® DC-1 benefits at a glance:
- automated blood cell differentials promote high efficiency
- enhanced quality of results from consistency and standardisation
- connectivity that facilitates remote collaboration and validation of results
- high-quality images highlight all cellular details
- smoother workflow and data management in the haematology laboratory
- accelerated turnaround time to clinical diagnosis ultimately benefits the patient
- valuable education tool for laboratory staff aided by the reference cell library and side by side blood cell images
Digital cell morphology and network integration are trends in laboratories today. The CellaVision® DC-1 is the latest in a line of proven automated digital cell morphology devices and is tailor-made for smaller and satellite laboratories.
The DC-1 consists of an automated microscope, a high-quality digital camera and an advanced computer system that uses artificial neural network (ANN) technology to locate, capture and pre-classify white blood cells from a stained blood smear. The system also pre-characterises the red blood cell morphology and provides a functionality for performing platelet estimates. ANNs are very good in pattern recognition and classification because of their ability to generalise and make decisions. The CellaVision® DC-1 (and Sysmex DI-60) uses ANNs that have been trained on thousands of cell images. Over 300 different features, e.g. shape, colour, size and nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio, have been identified for each cell and are used in determining the cell’s classification into one of 17 cell classes.
WBC, RBC and PLT images are stored, together with differential results, in a database. Captured cell images can be reviewed and compared in multiple cell galleries or magnified and studied in detail individually. After reclassification and validation, the results are sent to the Sysmex Extended IPU or LIS system. Additionally, there is a cell reference library which not only benefits everyday laboratory work, but also allows for educational opportunities.
This technology can dramatically improve the quality and efficiency of the historically subjective differential review. Advances in image analysis and network integration allow the cell image to finally become a fundamental part of the patient’s record.
