2 April 2026 (Thursday) - NEQAS 2602 BF

I got the results of NEQAS morphology survey 2602BF today…

 

2602BF1 I said:

 

Hypochromia (consensus 4^th)

Target cells  (consensus 1^st)

Large plts (consensus 2^nd)

Neutropenia (consensus 14^th)

 

I wrote “? thal ? SC disease”. The expert opinion said: “These features are all suggestive of Hb SC disease and this was confirmed on HPLC though the degree of microcytosis should lead to the consideration of a coexistent alpha thalassemia trait”

 

 

2602BF2 I said:

 

Hypochromia (consensus 1^st)

Microcytosis (consensus 2nd)

Pencil cells (consensus 3^rd)

Tear drop cells (consensus 5^th)

^ plts (consensus 4^th)

 

I thought this was a case of iron deficiency. It was.

 

31 March 2026 (Tuesday) - IBMS Update

The IBMS sent their update today – you can read it by clicking here. I must admit I’m quite a critic of the IBMS but this was one of their better offerings.

I did like the article about infections in feature films… I was reminded of an episode nearly thirty years ago when I wrote to the BBC. A rather poor doctor in the TV show “Casualty”  was told that they would be lucky to end up in a path lab. The BBC replied saying that they were sorry for any offence caused, and they acknowledged that the average path lab worked is educated to postgraduate standards. But what they were striving for was dramatic effect.

Nothing has changed in the meantime…

 

30 March 2026 (Monday) - AML

Back in the day we’d just judge on what we saw down the microscope. Didn’t I comment on that the other day?