What should you know about imaging flow cytometry?

A fluid sample passes through an instrument one cell at a time. Light-based measurements describe features such as size, internal complexity, and signals from attached markers. Imaging adds a visual record, so a laboratory specialist can check whether a marker is on the cell surface, inside the cell, or associated with a particular structure. This can help distinguish cell populations and investigate abnormal blood or immune cells.

The sample may be blood, another body fluid, or material collected during a bone marrow biopsy. The test is an analysis of the sample, not a scan of your whole body, and the result needs to be interpreted alongside your symptoms, examination, and other laboratory findings.

Follow the collection instructions from your care team. Most preparation depends on the sample being tested rather than on the imaging component. Tell the team about medicines, recent transfusions, infections, or treatments that could affect blood or bone marrow cells. After collection, ask when the report is expected and how it will be discussed. A result may describe groups of cells and marker patterns rather than give a diagnosis in isolation.

Contact your care team promptly if the sampling site continues to bleed, becomes increasingly swollen, or develops worsening redness, drainage, or pain. Seek urgent help for heavy bleeding, fainting, severe breathing difficulty, or sudden weakness. These concerns relate to the sample collection or another medical problem and should not be judged from the flow cytometry result alone.

Which sample was examined, and what cell population was being investigated? Which markers or visual features were abnormal? Does this report change the need for another test, such as a bone marrow biopsy? When will the findings be combined with the rest of my results?