Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Coulter principle states that particles pulled through an orifice, concurrent with an electric current, produce a change in impedance proportional to the volume of the particle traversing the orifice. This pulse in impedance originates from the displacement of electrolyte caused by the particle.
Hematology analyzers are used to conduct a complete blood count (CBC), which is usually the first test requested by physicians to determine a patient's general health status. [5] A complete blood count includes red blood cell (RBC), white blood cell (WBC), hemoglobin, and platelet counts, as well as hematocrit levels.
The first impedance-based flow cytometry device, using the Coulter principle, was disclosed in U.S. Patent 2,656,508, issued in 1953, to Wallace H. Coulter. Mack Fulwyler was the inventor of the forerunner to today's flow cytometers – particularly the cell sorter. [6] Fulwyler developed this in 1965 with his publication in Science. [7]
The Coulter principle uses electrical impedance measurements to count blood cells and determine their sizes; it is a technology that remains in use in many automated analyzers. Further research in the 1970s involved the use of optical measurements to count and identify cells, which enabled the automation of the white blood cell differential.
For this reason, the blood flow velocity is the fastest in the middle of the vessel and slowest at the vessel wall. In most cases, the mean velocity is used. [18] There are many ways to measure blood flow velocity, like videocapillary microscoping with frame-to-frame analysis, or laser Doppler anemometry. [19]
Electrical analysis involves passing a dilute solution of the blood through an aperture across which an electrical current is flowing. The passage of cells through the current changes the impedance between the terminals (the Coulter principle). [6]
In electrical engineering, impedance is the opposition to alternating current presented by the combined effect of resistance and reactance in a circuit. [1]Quantitatively, the impedance of a two-terminal circuit element is the ratio of the complex representation of the sinusoidal voltage between its terminals, to the complex representation of the current flowing through it. [2]
Blood is sampled and diluted, and moves through a tube thin enough that cells pass by one at a time. Characteristics about the cell are measured using lasers (fluorescence flow cytometry) or electrical impedance. Because not everything about the cells can be measured at the same time, blood is separated into a number of different channels.