Celloscope automated cell counter

[4] In an interview published in the Clinical Biochemistry in the Nordics, a membership magazine for the Nordic Association for Clinical Chemistry, Lars Ljungberg explains that he and his coworkers had been considering different solutions for counting blood cells for some time when they came across a method presented by the American Navy on how particles could be counted when allowed to pass a capillary hole through which a weak direct current was passed simultaneously.

[9] When the Celloscope was introduced to the market in the early 60s, a lawsuit was filed by Coulter Electronics Inc. against AB Lars Ljungberg & Co for alleged infringement of the American patent.

[10] After many and long negotiations, the companies came to the agreement to compensate Coulter for the sales that had been made in USA and some European countries where he had the patent and that AB Lars Ljungberg & Co was free to sell their analyzer in other regions.

Diluting the blood sample 1/80 000 in a physiological saline solution allows enumeration of the erythrocytes, as the number of leukocytes does not affect the result more than by about 1/1 000 000.

These analyzers were initially intended to be used in hospital laboratories, as they required a skilled staff and a high sample load to justify their relatively high cost, however, with the increasing need for decentralized healthcare, the demand for simpler analyzers emerged and prompted the development of benchtop cell counters that could be used in a near-patient clinical setting with a minimum of training.

[19] The founders, Ingemar Berndtsson and Abraham Bottema, both had a long history and experience in hematology, clinical chemistry, and blood banking engineering.

[27][28] The company has kept the parallel brands and the analyzers are still manufactured from its facilities in Stockholm, Sweden and supplied under the Swelab and Medonic trademarks for the decentralized hematology testing market.

By this acquisition, Boule came to master the skills of the development and production of both instruments and the consumables included in a complete hematology system.