Electronic and Informatic developments
- 1945 - The photomultiplier tube had been developed to detect photons and converts them into electrical pulses. Also being developed amplifiers and analog-digital converters.;
- 1949 - Wallace Coulter counter patented the first electronic blood cell non-optical;
Between 1950 and 1960 - found that automated cytology could be more useful in clinical diagnosis. Began having an interest in the development of this area by the academic medical institutions;
It was then possible to count electronically blood cells more accurately and more quickly than a hemocytometer, starting the revolution to automate;
- 1957 - was put on the market the first model to rely mainly erythrocytes and blood leukocytes
- 1961 - Appeared a new model that also allowed to know the distribution of the cells.
Since that time, there was an urgency in trying to automate the process of microscopic identification. To accomplish this goal, computers, recently introduced at that time, and applied the appropriate software.
Two different groups have emerged to address the problem:
- Marylou Ingram (Hematologist, University of Rochester) and Kendall Preston (biomedical engineer from Perkin-Elmer), developed a process to automate the microscopic, identifying leucocytes stained smears - Cytoanalyser
- Studies by Mendelssohn Mortimer, Brian Mayall and Judith Prewitt using automated instrument called CYDAC, to extend the analysis of the image of the cells were the first examples of automated image cytometry. The importance of this work related to the flow cytometry has been the introduction of computers and sophisticated computer algorithms.
Reference:Shapiro HM. Practical flow cytometry. 4th ed. New York: Wiley-Liss; 2003