Hematological analyzer - scope and principle of operation

In veterinary laboratory practice, in the same way as in medicine, for a comprehensive examination of animals and diagnosing a disease, one sometimes has to resort to establishing a picture of blood. It is for these purposes that scientists have developed a special device - a hematological analyzer. Initially, these devices were used only in medical institutions for people, and later they were adapted to study the blood of animals.

Veterinary hematology analyzer - the principle of work

To date, there are many companies that produce analyzers for counting blood cells of animals, both agricultural and domestic pets. In many respects, they differ in the set of options, but most of them have a general principle of operation.

During the passage of blood through a special flow cell, such conditions are created when the cells are arranged in a certain order one after another. When the shaped elements hit the action of the laser beam, the so-called information reading occurs. Further, the characteristics of blood cells are evaluated according to the following parameters: electrical resistance, capacitance and light scattering.

It is known that any cell (leukocyte, platelet, erythrocyte, etc.) has its own parameters, characteristic only for it: size, volume, density, conductivity, etc.

By measuring the resistance of cells, the size is determined, and their total number is also counted.

The measurement of capacitance enables the apparatus to judge the structure of the cell, its density, the size of the nucleus.

And, finally, the light scattering property makes it possible to assess the granularity and structure of the cell surface, to remove information about the segmentation of the nucleus and to determine the ratio of the cell to one or another type of leukocytes.

To improve the quality of research in the modern hematology analyzer integrate additional functions, such as:

• Sample preparation of the test material, which is carried out directly inside the device;
• The improvement of software, which allows more accurate measurement of cell parameters.

When blood is analyzed with a hematological analyzer, blood counts can be counted and various parameters can be determined: leukocytes and their populations, erythrocytes, hemoglobin, platelets, lymphocytes, ESR, hematocrit, the volume of different types of blood cells, pathological inclusions and much more.

Hematological analyzer veterinary - field of application

If we are talking about farm animals, then today the hematological analyzer is used most often to detect cows, patients with leukosis of cattle, or carriers of this virus. The disease causes great harm to livestock. And only early detection of carriage, timely separation of healthy animals from patients can improve and rid the herd of leukemia.

Earlier counting of leukocytes, determination of the blood picture was carried out manually. This required a lot of time and effort, with the advent of the same high-tech equipment, the process was significantly simplified, and the efficiency of identifying sick animals increased significantly.

In veterinary practice involving small domestic animals, cats or dogs, basically the haematologist is used to determine the general blood test, measure the color index, hemogram, etc.