Clinical applications of cytometry: 6th annual meeting.

The Sixth Annual Clinical Applications of Cytometry Meeting was held September 11-14, 1991, in Charleston, SC. Attendance reached a record 470. The meeting provides a forum for interactions among investigators who utilize cytometry as a tool in their clinical immunology, cell biology, hematology, and cancer investigations. Clinical laboratory directors and their technical staff find the meeting of practical value because of the presentation of new applications that they can take home to their own laboratories. The emphasis of the meeting is on advances in the application of cytometry to clinical problems. Often, advances result from new dyes or reagents or improved instrumentation. Sometimes they result from advances in biology that make the studies possible. Occasionally a new way of looking at the same data provides a useful answer. In every case, the effort is to provide a reliable, straightforward way to quantitate biologic information in order to provide improved diagnosis or treatment of human disease.     

Clinical applications of laser scanning cytometry

This study reviews existing and potential clinical applications of laser scanning cytometry (LSC) and outlines possible future developments. LSC provides a technology for solid phase cytometry. Fluorochrome-labeled specimens are immobilized on microscopic slides that are placed on a conventional epifluorescence microscope and analyzed by one or two lasers. Data comparable to flow cytometry are generated. In addition, the position of each event is recorded, a feature that allows relocalization and visualization of each measured event. The major advantage of LSC compared with other cytometric methods is the combination of two features: (a) the minimal clinical sample volume needed and (b) the connection of fluorescence data and morphological information for the measured event. Since the introduction of LSC, numerous methods have been established for the analysis of cells, cellular compartments, and tissues. Although most cytometric methods use only two or three colors, the characterization of specimens with up to five fluorochromes is possible. Most clinical applications have been designed to determine ploidy and immunophenotype; other applications include analyses of tissue biopsies and sections, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and the combination of vital and nonvital information on a single-cell basis. With the currently available assays, LSC has proven its wide spectrum of clinical applicability in slide-based cytometry and can be introduced as a standard technology in multiple clinical settings.