We had a
phone call yesterday. A front-line worker with coeliac disease has been advised
by ... lets say "a prominent and respected organisation" to
have her blood taken and a film examined for Howell Jolly bodies.
The
rationale is that the absence of Howell-Jolly bodies will prove adequate
splenic function for her to continue working in a front-line role during the
current COVID-19 pandemic.
This
seemed a rather strange request to me and all of my colleagues. I mentioned it
to one of the consultants who laughed and said that it was complete nonsense…
but just wait – in five years it will be standard practice. (He’s probably
got a point).
I thought
I might ask the wider blood-testing community their opinion so I posted on the
Facebook Hematology Interest Group.
The
responses came into three broad categories.
- There were a lot of rather stupid and irrelevant animated gifs.
- There was a lot of opinion from people who clearly didn’t know the first thing about the blood test in question.
- And there were a few posts which addressed my question whilst showing some understanding of the matter. But only a few.
There were
several references to articles posted from people in the third category amazingly
ten per cent of people with coeliac disease also have reduced splenic function.
Perhaps we *will* be looking for Howell-Jolly bodies more often?
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