2 May 2018 (Wednesday) - Down the Microscope



Apologies for the poor photograph.

An otherwise unremarkable blood film showed Howell Jolly bodies and some basophilic stippling.
On further enquiry the patient had undergone splenectomy.


H,18.4728773.R       R 01.05.18  Clin. det. Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            HBM   WBCM    PLT    HCT   RBCM   MCVM   MCHM  MCHCM    RDW      N
100418 F    132  10.99     61  0.428   5.27   81.2   25.0    308   24.1   7.86
160418 F    129  11.12    182  0.415   5.11   81.2   25.2    311   23.9   7.86
230418 F    124  11.57    216  0.395   4.89   80.8   25.4    314   23.9   7.89
010518 F    125  12.27    286  0.417   5.07   82.2   24.7    300   24.6   9.01

              L      M      E      B   RETP   RETA    IRF    NUC     GF    ESR
100418 F   1.62   1.05   0.32   0.14    1.2  60.60   26.7                     
160418 F   1.83   0.96   0.33   0.14    1.3  68.50   23.1                     
230418 F   1.97   1.31   0.26   0.14    1.2  56.20   17.2                     
010518 F   1.81   0.93   0.36   0.16    1.4  70.50   24.9 

30 April 2018 (Monday) - Transfusion Evidence Library update


The Transfusion Evidence Library sent their email today. Loads of interesting articles. Especially this one:


Effect of age of red cells for transfusion on patient outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
McQuilten Z K,  French C J, et al. Transfusion Medicine Reviews 2018.




27 April 2018 (Friday) - Lymph... Mono... ?


A rather interesting discussion in the Facebook “Hematology Interest group”:

My apologies if this is a silly question, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips for distinguishing between reactive lymphocytes and monocytes?

I have 7 images here, and colour coded the respective WBC with what I think it is on the images - but I'm still just not sure if it is right. I've searched online and also textbooks, but still struggle to be certain if it really is a reactive or just a monocyte (the cytoplasm colour and chromatin pattern generally looks the same to me).

If anyone could help (and confirm my guesses), that would be much appreciated!

An interesting article… I think most people would struggle with this topic…