BM Evaluation Flashcards
Where is the location of red marrow at birth?
All is mostly red marrow
Where is red marrow at age 5-7?
Yellow marrow beginning to replace red
Location of red marrow in adults?
Red marrow limited to “warm” sites such as the axial skeleton and proximal portions of extremities
Where are BM samples taken from?
Prefer posterior, superior iliac crest (hips and long bones) in both children and adults
The bone marrow aspirate is the ____ portion of marrow
Liquid
Which sample do you perform a diff with?
The liquid aspirate
What purpose does obtaining a BM biopsy serve?
- Estimate cellularity
- Evaluation of architecture
- Allows us to perform immunohistochemical staining
Normal myeloid/erythroid ratio in adults
1.5/1 to 3.3/1
Normocellular formula % of cellularity
% = (100 - age) +/- 10
Comprehensive BM examination includes what?
- PB smear
- BM aspirate
- BM core biopsy/aspirate clot selection
- Ancillary studies
Ancillary studies include but not limited to…
- Immunohistochemistry
- Special stains
- Flow cytometry
- Cytogenetics
- Molecular
- Microbiology
What does the presence of spicules on a BM aspirate indicate?
Specimen was collected correctly (aka “adequate”)
Be able to identify spicules on a bone marrow?
*
When performing a diff on a BM aspirate, you perform counts and cellular morphology by looking where?
Look around edges of spicule, not against the spicule (cells may be distorted!)
Function of osteoblasts
Synthesize bone
