RE: rare event

From: Leary, James F. (jleary@utmb.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 02 1999 - 15:13:52 EST


Hai -- You might find our paper on rare cell sampling statistics helpful
(Rosenblatt, J.I., Hokanson, J.A., McLaughlin, S.R., Leary, J.F.:  "A
Theoretical Basis for Sampling Statistics Appropriate for the Detection and
Isolation of Rare Cells Using Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting"  Cytometry
26: 1-6; 1997).   -- Jim Leary

-----Original Message-----
From: Qi, Hai [mailto:haqi@UTMB.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 1999 4:49 PM
To: cyto-inbox
Subject: rare event




It is really not too rare, a cell population about 0.04% to 0.15%, while the
background is 0.01-0.05%. The problem is the variation among different
measurements, presumably due to the systematic error. For example, I had
10e7 total cells and ran 2*10e5 out of them for two times: one time I got
0.04% and the other time I got 0.15%. In order to have smaller variation,
obviously I have to increase my sample size, but the last thing I want to do
is to run through all 10e7 cells. Can anyone give me a handy statistical
method for estimating the sample size that makes a cost-effective
compromise? Thank you very much.

Hai Qi
Dept. of Pathology, UTMB



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