Fluorescence Imaging-Based System for Performing White Blood Cell Counts

We demonstrate fluorescent labelling and imaging of white blood cells (leukocytes) in diluted whole blood samples. The method consists of mixing whole blood with acridine orange dye in phosphate buffer solution followed by fluorescence imaging with low magnification and subsequent image processing. Total leukocyte counts (TLC) have diagnostic utility in multiple clinical conditions. Our aim is to develop a portable point-of-care device for TLC count which can be used in low resource settings having no access to traditional TLC counting instruments.