Comparison of Automated Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate with Gold Standard Westergren Method and its Correlation with Red Cell Parameters

Abstract

Objective: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is a widely used laboratory test that is affected by red blood cell (RBC) parameters and has many limiting environmental and technical factors. Automated techniques have been introduced to overcome these limitations. This study aimed to compare the automated ESR with the gold standard Westergren method and investigate its correlation with red cell parameters.

Materials and methods: A total of 400 randomly collected blood samples from Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) Rawalpindi were assayed parallelly using Westergren method and Greiner-Bio-One (Vacuette^?) SRS 20/II ESR analyzer from October 2022 to January 2023. Results of these assays were analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for normality and Spearman's correlation test for correlation.

Results: This study revealed a strong and significant correlation between the automated ESR analyzer and the classical gold standard Westergren method (r=0.907; p < 0.001). Additionally, the red blood cell parameters showed a positive and significant correlation with both automated and Westergren methods (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: With strong correlation between Greiner-Bio-One (Vacuette^?) SRS 20/II ESR automated analyzer and the reference Westergren method, this study concludes that the automated technique is substantially associated with the Westergren method for estimating ESR, and red blood cell parameters have a positive and significant correlation with both methods.

Keywords: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate, Westergren methods, red cell parameters, automated method