Here's
something that made me sit up and take notice. Look at this photo I took of a
blood film I saw today...
And then I
read the diagnosis... a known case of sickle cell disease. But the fact that a
diagnosis has been made in no way detracts from the validity of this blood film
for CPD purposes...
I found
this particularly interesting because… well…
look at those sickle cells. When I was a trainee at a hospital on the
south coast which has long since been bulldozed I was told (at great length)
that the term “sickle cell” was a misnomer, and that you never see
sickle cells on a blood film. I was told that you only see them when you
artificially lower the oxygen concentrations by making sealed wet cell preparations
(a technique which involved sticking diluted blood under a coverslip and
sealing the coverslip in place with nail varnish).
But
demonstrably here we have sickle cells. You have to wonder how these myths
perpetrate themselves…
