European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Introduction: Nowadays, platelet counting is employed as a routine method owing to the emergence of dengue fever from the past few decades. Manual methods yield varying outcomes while sometimes automated methods produce inappropriate outcomes. Hence, the goal of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of manual modality of platelet count with respect to automated analyzers. Additionally, this study was also analyzed the correlation between manual and automated analyzer.
Materials and Methods: The current study was carried out in the Department of Pathology, Employee’s State Insurance corporation (ESIC) Hospital, Sarojini Nagar, Lucknow (U.P.) on a group of 600 patients (375 female and 225 male) including both indoor and outdoor settings  from 1^st November to 30^th November, 2021 in a one month duration. The blood samples were collected in tubes containing K3-EDTA (tri-potassium ethylenediamine-tetra-acetic acid). Manual method of platelet counting was performed by slide method with Leishman stain while automated counting was carried out by using Mindray BC-6200, 5 part auto-hematology analyzer.
Results: A total of 600 patients have studied with the mean platelet count in automated analyzer was 1.16±0.99 ×10³ /µL and by manual method with Leishman stain was 1.23±1.03 lacs /mm³. A positive correlation was observed between automated analyzer and manual platelet count (r=0.837, p=0.00).     
Conclusion: When the platelet counts are very low, manual method of platelet counting should be done carefully to exclude clumping or irregular distribution of platelets.