The best place to start is by reviewing the Flow Cytometry web page from Lab Tests Online from the AACC (formerly American Association of Clinical Chemistry).
The links below are all from the Clinical Flow Wiki
- Clinical Flow Wiki
- “Mission: This site is devoted to building a connected community around Clinical Flow Cytometry. It is intended to serve as a resource for information, case examples, e-Learning and resources. We have chosen the wiki format to allow all users to contribute their experience and knowledge to build a vibrant community.”
- Introduction to Flow Cytometric Analysis
- Self Guided Learning Page
- “This page will list our cases in order of complexity. All of the cases can be downloaded and viewed using the free FCS Express Reader. The cases are heavily annotated, explaining what the analyst is thinking as they analyze the case.”
- “The key to analyzing flow cases is to practice with a lot of normal cases to really understand what a normal case looks like. Clinical flow analysis relies heavily on pattern recognition, and without understanding what a normal pattern looks like, it will be impossible to detect an abnormal one.”
- “Read the Introduction to Flow Cytometric Analysis. This will give an overview of the principles behind clinical flow analysis.”
- “In addition, read the section on Cluster of Differentiation in order to become familiar with the CD markers and their respective marking.”
- “Download the Normal Peripheral Blood analysis. Go through all the pages to understand why the different markers are used and what they tell you about the cells. Make sure you understand the normal patterns of expression in peripheral blood.”
- “Download the Normal Lymph Node analysis. Go through all the pages to understand why the different markers are used and what they tell you about the cells. Note any differences between peripheral blood.”
- Cases
- “We have many pages on the wiki for different diseases in which flow cytometry plays a role in diagnosis. Each page gives a brief description of the disease as well as the key elements in its flow cytometric diagnosis and evaluation. Each case also has an analysis protocol attached containing all the raw data and gating used to analyze the case. Every analysis has detailed annotations beside each plot describing what the plot is used for and key plots that are critical for diagnosing the particular disease are highlighted. An example can be seen (in PowerPoint format) here.”
- “However, PowerPoint (or PDF) is not enough if you really want to learn how to analyze a case. You need to be able to move the gates, markers and quadrants. You should practice changing the plots around to really explore the data. That is why most cases are given in FCS Express format, although there may be cases in PDF and PowerPoint as well. You can download the analysis for free and view/manipulate it using the free FCS Express Reader. We encourage you to download the analysis and practice manipulating the gates to learn the strategies real experts use for evaluating cases.”
- “If you are a beginner, please visit our Self-Guided Learning page. The learning page will present the cases in order of complexity, so if you are learning how to do clinical flow, we would suggest you start there.”
