18 September 2026 (Friday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise

 Time for another BTLP-TACT exercise. I had one case – a twenty-five year-old woman with sickle cell disease needing eight units of blood for an exchange transfusion.

She grouped as O Rh(D) Negative with a negative antibody screen.

I selected all the O Rh(D) Negative K Negative HbS Negative units I could scrape up.. two of them.

 

I got the green light, but I hardly got it right, did I? I supplied a quarter of what was required. In reality I would have got on to NHSBT and had more supplies sent.

But I got the green light and that was a result.

16 September 2026 (Wednesday) - Inspections

This appeared on one of the satirical work-related Facebook pages that I follow… but it illustrates something I’ve been banging on about for years. Back in the day the old CPA standards were for most people unobtainable for most of the time.

Everyone knew this, and everyone accepted this.

Back in the day when I was in charge our lab passed with only three (very) minor findings, but it was the result of a lot of hard work to reach a standard for one day which was frankly beyond anyone’s ability to maintain for more than a day. We would put on a show, breathe a sigh of relief when the inspectors went home, and put our feet up for the next four years. After four years we would get plenty of notice of our next inspection, and would again move heaven and Earth to be ready on the day.

The late Duke of Edinburgh unknowingly summed up the old CPA standards when he once remarked that everywhere he went smelled of paint. And the current ISO standards are in much the same vein.

 

As a lad our Boys Brigade entered a team into the fire brigade’s fire safety quiz competition. There we learned about industrial and commercial fire safety standards which were manageable and obtainable…  but the fire brigade would turn up unannounced to check that all was in order.

 

Surely we would be far better off with such a system. Manageable and achievable objectives which are inspected without prior notice.

14 September 2026 (Monday) - Hairy Cells

 

Looks like hairy cell leukaemia to me...

The correct answer is option 3. Hairy cell leukemia. 
The combination of neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, marked monocytopenia, splenomegaly, absence of lymphadenopathy, and a dry bone marrow aspirate is highly suggestive of classic hairy cell leukemia (HCL).
Cytopenias result from bone marrow infiltration and fibrosis, which commonly causes a dry tap. Marked monocytopenia is particularly characteristic of HCL, while splenomegaly without significant lymphadenopathy is a typical clinical pattern. Diagnosis should be confirmed by bone marrow biopsy, flow cytometry, and BRAF V600E testing. The presence of a BRAF V600E mutation supports the diagnosis of classic HCL and helps distinguish it from several HCL-like disorders. 
CLL is unlikely in the absence of lymphocytosis, whereas myelodysplastic syndrome and T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia do not typically produce this combination of findings.

Reference:

• Zent CS, et al. Updated consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and management of patients with HCL and HCL variant. Blood. 2026 Jul 2;148(1):31-42.
• Falini B, Tiacci E. Hairy-Cell Leukemia. N Engl J Med. 2024 Oct 10;391(14):1328-1341.
• Wotherspoon A, et al. Bone marrow and splenic histology in hairy cell leukaemia. Best Pract Res Clin Haematol. 2015 Dec;28(4):200-7.

10 September 2026 (Thursday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise

Time for another BTLP-TACT exercise. I had one case – a seventy year old woman needing six units of blood for an aortic aneurysm.

 

Her ABO group was indeterminate, but her Rh(D) group was negative.

The antibody screen was negative.

I selected six units of O Rh(D) Negative.

 

I got it right.

7 September 2026 (Monday) - NEQAS 2603 PA

I got the results of NEQAS 2603 PA today…

 

2603PA1

 

I saw some things that made me look twice, but nothing convincing. It was probably debris; certainly wasn’t a parasite.I don’t like thick films at the best of times.

The slide was actually negative and that’s what I said.

 

2603PA2

 

I saw some small worm-things. Was it  Leishmania donovani?

The expert opinion was that this was amastigotes of Leishmania. Bearing in mind I’ve never seen this outside of a NEQAS exercise I think I’m justified in saying “Go me” (!)

 

7 September 2026 (Monday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise

 

Time for a BTLP-TACT exercise… I was presented with one case – a thirty-two year-old chap in the haematology clinic with sickle cell disease needing eight units of blood for an exchange transfusion.

He grouped as O Rh(D) Positive with a negative antibody screen. I selected all the HbS negative units there were (four).

I got it right…   In reality that would be a resounding fail because I only came up with half the amount of blood needed. In reality I would get onto NHSBT and have them send some suitable blood. But this isn’t reality. It’s a simulator. Not a bad one, but quite obviously a work in progress on which no progress is being made. (That’s very ungrateful of me, isn’t it?)

6 September 2026 (Sunday) - CML

Well… it looks like CML to me. There’s nothing else that gives you quite such an assortment of myeloid cells.