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[betabex]

Hi guys,

Some colleagues of mine are having problems with their bone marrow aspirate smears.  Intermittently, cells in the smears and clumping/pooling and the RBCs are lysing.  Since this is in a pathology environment, this is not helping the diagnosis!

- no consistency with patient diagnosis/condition/disease
- only happens when the smears are done in the theatre, which is lower humidity than the lab.
- does not happen every time,
- peripheral blood smears are fine all the time
- no consistency with visual approximation of cell density
- does not happen with every slide of a particular patient; maybe 1 in 4 slides of some patients.

Do they need to change from the Menzel Superfrost slides they are using?  The suggestion is perhaps they are not cleaned properly, although there's no visual reason to think this; the packet and the dessication sachet are intact, no visual watermarks or anything.

How do other pathologists normally treat their bone marrow aspirate prior to smearing? Perhaps a new technique will help?

Thanks for your help!