25 January 2018 (Thursday) - Medical News Today Update



Another email – A few days ago I signed up for the Medical News Today newsletter. Today’s had one or two interesting snippets:


Blood / Hematology News
What is kernicterus and what are the symptoms? 23 Jan 2018
All about the spleen 23 Jan 2018
Blood transfusions: Is there a limit? 20 Jan 2018
Eight cancers could be diagnosed with a single blood test 19 Jan 2018


24 January 2018 (Wednesday) - New Guidelines



An email - there have been some changes to the transfusion guidelines:


Change Notification No. 01 - 2018
Date           17 January 2018
Subject  Poisoning - Applies to the Tissues and Cells Donor Selection Guidelines

Change Notification No. 02 - 2018
Date                  17 January 2018
Subject  Toxoplasmosis - Applies to Deceased and Living Tissues and Cells Donor Selection Guidelines

Change Notification No. 03 - 2018
Date        17 January 2018
Subject  Chikungunya Virus - Applies to Geographical Disease Index



24 January 2018 (Wednesday) - Stomatocytes

Here’s an interesting thing I saw down the microscope today.

DUCK Lewis T       M            K1234567           03.04.56
Z,18.0009894.F       R 24.01.18  Clinical details  PANCREATIC CA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
            HBM   WBCM    PLT    HCT   RBCM   MCVM   MCHM  MCHCM    RDW      N
210118 F     90  15.09    677  0.276   3.10   89.0   29.0    326   15.4  12.80
220118 F     91  14.77    603  0.277   3.10   89.4   29.4    329   15.8  12.32
230118 F     86  12.70    613  0.265   2.91   91.1   29.6    325   16.1  10.36
240118 F     90  13.86    589  0.277   3.03   91.4   29.7    325   16.4  11.11

              L      M      E      B    NUC   NUCA    ESR     GF
210118 F   1.06   1.01   0.16   0.06    0.0   0.00             
220118 F   0.97   1.20   0.23   0.05                           
230118 F   1.08   1.07   0.14   0.05                           
240118 F   1.33   1.23   0.16   0.03  

Stomatocytes. You don’t see them very often… They have a mouthlike or slit-like form that replaces the normal central pale zone.There are several mechanisms by which this change can occur:

  • In hereditary stomatocytosis (HSt), the mechanism of stomatocyte formation often involves changes in cell volume caused by reduced intracellular ion content and trans-membrane pump malfunction.
  • In most cases of acquired stomatocytosis (and some rare inherited conditions) there can be either a decrease in red cell membrane surface area or qualitative changes in the composition of the membrane lipid bilayer (pumps again).

I found an article about them on-line. You can read it here.