The IDEXX Procyte provides dotplots of red blood cell (RBC) and platelet scatter (upper image) and different white blood cells (WBC) (lower image). There is distinct separation of the RBC and platelet clusters, suggesting a reasonably accurate platelet count was obtained. However, in the WBC plot, there is merging of the lymphocyte/monocyte/neutrophil clusters, indicating that the machine is not effectively identifying these different cells. The absolute differential count indicated very low numbers of lymphocytes and monocytes (<1% of both cell types) with a high neutrophil count (97% of cells). In addition, the basophil cluster is prominent, resulting in a basophilia (2% of cells), which is likely an inaccurate result since most automated analyzers cannot reliably detect basophils. Unlysed red blood cells are falling into a region occupied by eosinophils (arrow), likely obscuring them (and resulting in the eosinopenia on the automated percentage [0.1%] and absolute differential count). The automated percentage and absolute differential count provided by the analyzer is likely inaccurate in this case and a blood smear should be reviewed to verify the automated counts or provide a more accurate leukocyte differential count.
