RESUMO
A total of 50 infants with septicaemia were prospectively studied by standard methods to define the pattern of morphological changes that occurred in peripheral blood cellular elements. The mean value of packed cell volume, white blood cell count and platelet count result of the patients showed significant differences when compared with the controls, p<0.05. Morphological abnormalities in the red cells of the patients included among others, anisocytosis, microcytosis, poikilocytosis, hypochromia, polychromasia, spherocytosis and schistocytes. Observed changes in white cells included toxic granulation and cytoplasmic vacuolation in neutrophils, lobe segmentation anomaly and leucoerythroblastic features. Platelets showed the features of hypogranulation, with megakaryocytes seen in some cases. We suggest that these features could be used as adjunct in the suspicion of septicaemia and in gauging success of management