Abstract
In cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examinations, the use of cell collecting smears is recommended for accurate cell identification. Therefore, we devised a new method of cell collection using a general-purpose swing-type centrifuge for smear preparation, and the validity of this method was evaluated. In our method, a “chamber system” kit (Sakura Finetek) and a general-purpose centrifuge were utilized, and the cells were collected for smear preparation by centrifugation at 800 rpm and 3 min. In the case of a large centrifuge, we made an adapter to fix the chamber system to the metal basket of the centrifuge. In the evaluations, we used a WBC suspension as a sample, and the number of cells, the cell fraction, and the number of destroyed cells identified on the smear slides by our method were compared with those obtained using an automatic smear method. As a result, the number of smeared cells was found to be higher in our method using a large centrifuge. However, there were no significant differences in the number of destroyed cells or in the ratio of mononuclear cells to polymorphonuclear cells between the two methods. Regarding the number of cells most suitable for such smears, the optimum total number of cells ranged from 10,000 to 50,000. In addition, excellent smear images were obtained even with actual CSF specimens. Our new method is easy to perform without using any expensive equipment, and it is most suitable for CSF testing, which requires rapid sample preparation.
