January 31 2011 (Monday) - Anaemic?

An example of an ongoing problem….. Look at the second set of results from the left.


MOUSE,MICKEY                                     A+       
DOB  06/04/1961 Sex M Pat No 501298       Source    KB
Address   EURODISNEY                      Clinician HARM

  Date 31/01     31/01      30/01       20/01     18/01

HB     10.5       5.2        11.5       11.9       12.0
WBC    13.8       20.0       15.8       19.1       17.6
PLT    283        389        253        218        263 
RBC    3.16       1.56       3.45       3.53       3.61
HCT    0.310      0.150      0.330      0.340      0.360
MCV    97.2       97.4       96.8       97.2       98.9 
MCH    33.2       33.3       33.3       33.7       33.2 
MCHC   34.2       34.2       34.4       34.7       33.6 
NEUH   11.3       16.7       13.4       16.5       15.5 
LYMPH  1.2        1.4        1.0        1.2        0.9
MONO   1.2        1.8        1.4        1.3        1.2
EOS    0.1        0.1        0.0        0.1        0.0



Blood samples are collected using needle and syringe and having taken the blood, the syringe was left to stand before filling the blood bottles. We know this because the venesectionist who took the blood admitted doing so – they got distracted for a few minutes.
In the time the syringe was left standing, the blood settled remarkably fast, and the blood count bottle was filled last. Clearly the results are rubbish, as evidenced by the “normal” repeat sample.

This cause of spurious results should be borne in mind to avoid unnecessary and unwanted blood transfusions.

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