Cell identification

Question 1

Can you list three key differences between dog and cat erythrocytes?

Answer 1

1 – dog erythrocytes have a central area of pallor, whilst this is not generally visible in cats.
2 – Cat erythrocytes are smaller in size compered to dog erythrocytes.
3 – Anisocytosis is usually present in cats, whilst dog erythrocytes are usually more uniform in size.

Question 2

What is this cell?

Answer 2

band neutrophil

Question 3

What is this cell?

Answer 3

2 - monocyte
3 - neutrophil

Question 4

What is this cell?

Answer 4

4 - eosinophil

Question 5

What is this cell?

Answer 5

5 - platelets

Question 6

What is this cell?

Answer 6

6 - lymphocyte - round nucleus, little or no cytoplasm

Question 7

What are these cells?

Answer 7

7 - neutrophil
8 - eosinophil
9 - lymphocyte

Question 8

What are these cells?

Answer 8

10 - platelet
11 - neutrophil
12 - eosinophil

Question 9

what are these arrows pointing to?

Answer 9

stain precipitate

Question 10

what are these arrows pointing to and what does it mean?

Answer 10

hypochromasia - seen in iron deficiency anaemia
(some polychromatic RBCs are also present on this image)

Question 11

what is shown here?

Answer 11

heinz body

Question 12

what is shown here? give a reason why this happens?

Answer 12

acanthocytes - feline hepatic lipidosis and hemangiosarcoma

Question 13

what are these?

Answer 13

spherocytes - small round cells lacking in central palor

Question 14

Describe what is seen in this blood smear?

Answer 14

A marked leucocytosis is present – predominant wbc type is lymphocytes
Also no platelets are noted –the patient likely has thrombocytopaenia
The patient was diagnosed leukaemia.
The key point here is there are more lymphocytes than you would typically expect, and they appear abnormal.

Question 15

describe what you can see on this blood smear?

Answer 15

You can see normal erythrocytes and normal platelets.
You can also see normal neutrophils – in this case more than you would expect.
The patient had a leucocytosis.

Question 16

This dogs haematocrit is 24%, can you see evidence for regeneration on this blood smear?

Answer 16

We can see evidence of polychromasia – this degree of polychromasia indicates adequate regeneration.

Question 17

This patient has a haematocrit of 12%
Is there any evidence of regeneration?
what does the arrow show

Answer 17

There is no evidence of polychromasia. The arrow shows agglutinated erythrocytes. It is likely that the patient had Immune mediated haemolytic anaemia.

Question 17

describe this blood smear

Answer 17

This slide shows a marked neutrophilia, with a left shift and mild toxic changes.

Question 18

describe this blood smear

Answer 18

The image shows a mild leucocytosis, with an eosinophilia and basophilia