A flow-system multiangle light-scattering instrument for cell characterization.

A flow-system cell-analysis instrument is described in which cells from a heterogeneous population are characterized by their light-scatter patterns alone. As the cells pass at high speed through a focused helium/neon laser beam, the scatter pattern from each cell is sampled simultaneously at up to 32 angles between 0 degrees and 30 degrees with respect to the laser beam axis, and the scatter pattern for each cell is transferred to a computer. A mathematical clustering algorithm is used to determine the number of classes into which the cells can be divided, and a linear separation algorithm is used to find the boundaries between the classes. Preliminary results on exfoliated cells from gynecological specimens are presented. This technique may be useful for automated prescreening of gynecological specimens.