Manual Reticulocyte Counts Flashcards
In the reticulocyte cell stage there are small amounts of______ that remains in the RBC. 
RNA
In order to detect the presence of RNA the RBCs must be stained while they are still __________.
What is this process called?
Alive
Supravital staining
What is the overall process for manual reticulocyte count?
-whole blood (EDTA) Is incubated with the supravital stain, new methylene blue.
-Smears are prepared
-Smears are observed using a Miller disk
-The number of retics in 1000 RBCs is counted, and then this number is divided by 10 to obtain the retic count as a percent.
What is placed inside the microscope ocular‘s to aid in the Retics counting process?
Miller disk 
-Will appear as two squares, one inside the other and the Smaller square will be exactly 1/9 the size of the larger square
How much smaller is the inner square in the Miller disk? 
1/9 the size of the larger square
Where is an acceptable area to use the Miller desk on a blood smear?
An area where the RBCs are close together but not overlapping, and where the retics appear to be well stained
-The RBCs will be a light to medium green color, and the RNA present will stain as widely scattered deep blue particles
To be considered a reticulocyte, the RBC must contain ______ or more Blue staining particles
2
Beware, many retic slides contain ________ artifact; These are shiny and easily confused with true reticulum.
Water
*Be especially careful if a cell is a retic and has water artifact! *
Using the 100 X oil immersion objective, you move through successive fields and count all of the…..
Erythrocytes (Both retics and plain RBCs) in the small square of the field as “RBCs”
Then count all the retakes seen in both squares as “retics”, continue this way until *111(+or-) 4 RBCs are counted
*** remember: A retic in the small square is counted as….
Both an RBC and a retic!
What do you count in the small square of the Miller desk?
And what do you count in the larger square plus the small square?
RBCs and retics as “RBCs”
All retics in both squares
- Continue this way until 111+ or -4 RBCs are counted* Whatever number of retics was counted during this process is used in the calculations*

We want to report our number of retics as a percentage. what is the easiest way to do this?
Take the total number of retics you counted in all of the whole (larger) Squares and divide by 10 
What do you do about a cell that sits on the line?
Always count those cells sitting on the top and left lines
“Top Left Count, TLC method)
Reticulocyte manual counts should be done how many times?
And when you compare the sets of results they should be +/- _____% 
2
0.5% (if this is the case, Average the two numbers)
What is the normal reticulocyte percentage for adults, children, and newborns?
Adults 0.5-2.0%
Children 1.0-3.0%
Newborns 2.0-6.0% 
