A patient with a spontaneously crystallizing IgG paraprotein was found to have leukocytosis when cell counts were determined by the Coulter Counter Model S. The appearance of large crystals on the smear prepared from blood at room temperature suggested that the apparent increase in leukocyte count was due to the enumeration of crystals. This presumption was established by further studies. Reliable automated counts could be obtained by prewarming the blood specimen to 37 C.
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Taft et al. (1973) studied this question.