Significant Variability in the Identification and Reporting of Band Neutrophils by Participants Enrolled in the College of American Pathologists Proficiency Testing Program: Time for a Change
Bibliographic record
Abstract
CONTEXT.—: Increased band neutrophils in blood smear differential counts ("bandemia") are entrenched in medicine as a flag for sepsis. However, laboratory hematology experts have long advocated for discontinuation of reporting bands separately from segmented neutrophils because of poor sensitivity and specificity, poor interobserver agreement, and availability of alternative biomarkers for sepsis. OBJECTIVE.—: To describe band neutrophil reporting practices and reproducibility of band classification among laboratories participating in the College of American Pathologists (CAP) proficiency testing (PT) program. DESIGN.—: A survey questionnaire was distributed to hematology PT participants. A subsequent morphologic challenge included 12 preselected cell identifications of segmented neutrophils, bands, and metamyelocytes, and a 100-cell manual differential count of a digitally scanned blood smear. RESULTS.—: Among laboratories that reported manual differentials, most respondents reported bands (4554 of 5268; 86.4%). Only 3222 of 4412 respondents (73.0%) provided band reference ranges. Though participants classified "easy" band neutrophils well (78.0%-98.3%), categorization of cell identifications for "moderate" and "difficult" bands was poor (3.1%-39.0% of laboratories), with classification instead as segmented neutrophils. This pattern was seen regardless of laboratory demographic characteristics. Marked variability in band counts was observed on the 100-cell differential count for both CAP PT participants and CAP Hematology and Clinical Microscopy Committee (HCMC) members (coefficients of variation, 55.8% and 32.9%, respectively). Variability was significantly improved when segmented and band neutrophils were grouped together (coefficients of variation, 6.2% and 5.0%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS.—: Most CAP PT-participating laboratories report band counts, many without reference ranges. The survey confirms significant interlaboratory variability of band enumeration when bands are separately identified from segmented neutrophils. This study reaffirms the CAP Hematology and Clinical Microscopy Committee's strong recommendation to group segmented and band neutrophils together in manual differential counts.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.078 | 0.113 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.004 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".