Peripheral blood film - an important tool for diagnosing Anaemia, its types and causes

ABSTRACT

To emphasize the importance of peripheral film and pathologist's comments in diagnosing different types of anaemia and its possible causes in hospitalized patients at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. It is a descriptive study. The study populations comprised of hospitalized patients in various wards at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. A month of year is randomly selected for the study. The records of complete blood picture report of the patients were revised for anaemia, its morphologic type and possible cause of anaemia on the basis of blood indices and peripheral blood film. One thousand and eight blood reports of complete blood picture were reviewed. Among the total. 605 were female and 403 were male and 563 patients were found anaemic. Based on blood indices and haemoglobin, 151 showed hypochromic micro-cytic picture. Seven films showed hypochromic microcytic picture, target cells and high red cell count suggestive of thalassemia minor, or iron deficiency anaemia plus thalassemia minor. 87 cases showed dimorphic picture. Normocytic normochromic picture was seen in 134 patients. 59 slides showed target cells. Macrocytes with right shifted neutrophils were seen in 07 patients. Burr cell were seen in 7 patients. Trophozoites and schizonts of Plasmodium vivax were found in 9, while trophozoites of p.falciparam were seen in 2 peripheral slides. Fragmented cells were observed in 2 blood smears. Peripheral film is an old but very important diagnostic tool to reach to final diagnosis. So whenever blood is sent for complete blood picture. one should pay attention on the comments given on peripheral film