BACKGROUND: EDTA-dependent pseudothrombocytopenia (EDTA-PTCP) is an METHODS: In this study, 43 identified EDTA-PTCP samples were collected. The Sysmex XN-9100, Mindray BC-6900 and Mindray BC-5390 haematology analysers were used to test these EDTA-PTCP samples on the following detection channels at different time points: PLT count by impedance method (PLT-I), PLT count by optical method (PLT-O) and PLT count by fluorescent staining (PLT-F). RESULTS: EDTA-PTCP was time-dependent and small PLT agglutination occurred in most of the corresponding citrate-treated samples. Our results further demonstrated that the detection channel significantly affected the PLT count of the EDTA-PTCP samples. The XN-9100 PLT-F channel exhibited a greater dissociative effect than the XN-9100 PLT-I and PLT-O channels. Moreover, blood samples processed in the PLT-O channel of the Mindray hematology analyzer showed the highest PLT count in EDTA-K2 tubes compared to the other detection channels. CONCLUSION: Our data showed that time, anticoagulant and detection channel significantly affected the PLT count in the EDTA-PTCP samples. For the EDTA-PTCP samples, the simplest retest method was to use the PLT-O channel of the Mindray automatic blood analyser within 30 min. In addition, changing the sodium citrate anticoagulant and using the XN-9100 PLT-F channel within 15 min were also suitable for correcting the spurious low PLT of the EDTA-PTCP samples.