Introduction to Hematology Flashcards
Blood centrifugation
Major types of “formed elements”
Erythrocytes, leukocytes, platelets
Erythrocyte lifespan
120 days
Thrombocyte lifespan
7-10 days
Methods for measuring formed elements
- Electrical impedence: The change in resistance produced when a cell or cell fragment passes through an electric current conducted across a small aperture
- Flow cytometry
Obtaining blood counts
Normal red cell indices
Most important plasma proteins
Proteins of the coagulation cascade, certain coagulation cascade regulatory factors, von Willebrand factor, and proteins that promote the lysis of clots, such as plasmin.
By adulthood, hematopoiesis is normally confined to . . .
. . . the axial skeleton, the proximal long bones, and the skull.
Organization of bone marrow
Decrease in all myeloid cells
Pancytopenia
Increase in all myeloid cells
Pancytosis
When the marrow is examined, in most instances . . .
. . . both an aspirate and biopsy are taken, usually from the posterior iliac crest.
Megakaryocyte
Reticulocyte
Orthochromic normoblast
basophilic (black arrow) and polychromatophilic (red arrow) normoblasts
Erythroblast
Metamyelocyte
Myelocyte
Promyelocyte
Myeloblast
Thymus on H and E
Splenic “slits”
The splenic arteries eventually give rise to small, arborizing arterioles, which empty into the splenic red pulp, an interstitial space separated from the venous sinuses of the spleen by a basement membrane with slit-like openings. Red cells that have normal deformability are able to push through the slits and return to the circulation, but cells that are rigid are retained and removed by resident macrophages.
Splenic red pulp diagram