Anaemia indicates a pathological state, since it is the result of a disruption in the homeostatic balance between the production of erythrocytes and the loss/ destruction of erythrocytes. Running a complete blood count is the primary investigation that must follow the discovery of anaemia. In certain cases, after analysing the results of the CBC, the laboratory doctor may decide to run additional tests, such as a peripheral blood smear, which examines each type of cell in order to find anomalies in their quantity and quality and establish what type of anaemia the patient suffers from. The CBC and blood smears analysed for the purpose of this study were obtained from patients with pathological blood modifications or who were suspected of having blood diseases. The automatic CBCs were analysed with the automatic Sysmex XN-1000 haematology analyser. The blood smears, obtained through May-Grünwald-Giemsa staining procedure, were examined under the microscope and photographed. The numerical data obtained were stored and analysed statistically, and the link between the variables was established with the use of Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Processing the CBCs revealed that the average number of erythrocytes was 3.28 ± 0.71/1003/μL, which represents 72.88% of the minimum biological reference value. Statistically, this parameter has a positive correlation with the quantity of haemoglobin (r=0.694), whose average was 9.52±1.11 g/dL, meaning 73.22% of the minimum biological reference value, and with the haematocrit (r=0.759), whose average value was 29.57±3.90%, which is 73.92% of the minimum reference value. All these low values indicate the presence of anaemia. The values of the erythrocyte numbers pointed towards normocytic anaemia, despite some individual variations. The average numbers of white cells and platelets were slightly higher than the biological values, suggesting the correlated modification of the other types of blood cells, that comes with anaemia. The microscope examination of the blood smears revealed some modifications in the form of the erythrocytes (some that look like a stack of coins, knizocytes, sickle cells, degmacytes and ovalocytes), changes in erythrocyte diameter (mainly macrocytosis, indicating hypochromic anaemia, through a deficit of haemoglobin synthesis) and changes in the haemoglobin load (hypochromic erythrocytes, which indicate hypochromic anaemia).

Anaemia, complete blood count (CBC), peripheral blood smear, erythrocytes, haemoglobin

biology

Presentation: None