Lab investigation of full blood count and white cell disorders

Question 1

What is the process of a multipotent hematopoietic stem cell to mature cells?

Answer 1

Question 2

What do you get from a full blood count?

Answer 2

Includes red blood cells results including

• Concentration of haemoglobin
• Percentage of blood volume as RBC = Hct
• Average size of RBC
• Reticulocyte count
• Blood film

White blood cells results

Platelets results

Question 3

What does a blood film show?

Answer 3

= morphology - are the cells normal?

• is there anything else there that shouldn’t be

Question 4

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a automated haematology analyser?

Answer 4

Advantages:

• Efficient and cost effective
• Accuracy and precision of quantitative blood test
• Ability to perform multiple test on single platform
• Reduced labour requirements
• Invaluable for accurate determination of red cell

Disadvantages

• Flagging of test results demand labour intensive manual examination of blood smear
• Comments on red cell morphology cannot be generated
• Platelet clumps are counted at single, so low count
• Expensive with high running cost