Blood Smear Preparation Flashcards
Two cover slide smears; used for bone marrow sample
Ehrlich
Cover slide and glass slide; used for bone marrow sample
Beacom
Most preferred method that uses two glass slide; spread with 35-45 degree angle
Wedge smear
glass slide size
3x1 inch
(75mm x 25mm x 1-1.2mm thick)
Smear for platelet, SLE and WBC count
buffy coat smear (spun smear)
Gold standard for blood parasites (malaria)
thick blood smear
semi automatic; stimulates the manual wedge technique
Miniprep
a. patient with increased hematocrit
b. angle of spreader
a. polycythemia vera
b. lowered to 25 degree angle
a. patient with decreased hematocrit
b. angle of spreader
a. anemia
c. higher to 45 degree angle
a. Thin smear
c. Thick smear
CLUE: “PASS”
a. Increase pressure; decrease angle, speed and size
b. Decrease pressure; increase angle, speed and size
Characteristics of a good blood smear
Gradual transition from thick to thin
2/3 or 3/4 length
Visible lateral edges
Finger-shaped
Edges with rainbow appearance
With irregularities, holes, streaks, waves, gaps
Specimen for blood smear
EDTA- venipuncture
Free flowing- skin puncture
Scanning/ counting of cells
a. side to side
b. tail toward the head of the smear
c. back and forth serpentine
a. Cross sectional/ crenellation
b. Longitudinal
c. Battlement/ Track pattern (most preferred method)
a polychrome stain containing methylene blue and its products are usually eosin B and Y
Romanowsky stains
Examples of romanowsky stain
Wright’s stain
Giemsa stain
Leishman stain
Jenner stain
May Grunwald
Color in smear
a. cell nucleus
b. cytoplasm
a. purple
b. blue and pink
Fixative that is toxic and causes blindness
Methanol
Blood smear buffer
aged distilled water and 0.05M sodium phosphate
Blood smear should be stained _______ after collection
2-3 hours
a. pH for blood and bone marrow staining
b. pH for malarial parasites
a. pH 6.8
b. pH 7.2
color of the following viewed microscopically
a. RBC
b. WBC nuclei
c. cytoplasm of neutrophils
d. eosinophils
a. orange to salmon pink
b. purple to blue
c. pink to tan or iliac granules
d. bright orange or refractile granules
Grainy appearance of the film may indicate
RBC agglutination
Holes all over the film may indicate
Increase lipid levels
Film is bluer overall
Increased blood proteins and rouleaux is present
Stain for thick and thin smear for malaria
Giemsa stain
Stain that is most common in film preparation
Wright’s stain
longer smear
thin; decrease angle
(vice versa)
Positive for feulgen, supravital and wright stain
Howell-Jolly bodies
The only positive in feulgen stain
Howell-Jolly bodies
Negative in Wright stain
Reticulocytes
Heinz Bodies
It could be negative nor positive in wright stain
Heinz bodies
Positive in supravital stain
basophilic stippling
howell-jolly bodies
Can be demonstrated with crystal violet stain
Heinz bodies
a. Demonstrates the presence of DNA
b. Demonstrates the presence of RNA
A. feulgen stain
B. Supravital stain
Demonstrated in new methylene blue stain
reticulocytes
enumerate the RBC inclusions
Basophilic stippling
Cabot rings
Howell-Jolly bodies
Polychromatophilia
Reticulocytes
Pappenheimer bodies
Heinz bodies
Overall film quality, color and distribution of cells can be assessed; used for checking fibrin strands
LPO
Rouleaux formation and RBC agglutination is easy seen at this objective
LPO
Seen in LPO; presence of more than four times the number of cells at the edges or feather compared with monolayer
snowplow effect
Selection of the correct area of the film in which to begin
HPO
WBC estimate
a. HPO (40x)
b. OIO (50x)
c. OIO (100x)
a. HPO (40x)= average # of WBCs per field x 2000
b. OIO (50x)= average # of WBCs per field x 3000
c. OIO (100x)= average # of platelets per field x 20,000
How many RBCs per 100 x oil immersion field are present in normal RBC count?
200-250 RBCs
