COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANAEMIA CASES BASED ON PERIPHERAL BLOOD SMEARS AND CELL COUNTER GENERATED RED CELL INDICES

Abstract

Background: Analyzing peripheral blood smears routinely has facilitated interpretation of various hematological disorders and has been a major diagnostic tool. The advent of automated hematology cell counter has improved accuracy, precision and safety. There is still a need to depend on manual techniques for primary calibration. This highlights the importance of maintaining the manual technical skills, Thus, the present study was undertaken to compare anaemia cases based on peripheral blood smears and cell counter generated Red blood cell (RBC) Indices. Material and Methods: The peripheral blood smears in anaemia were evaluated and compared it with cell counter generated red cell indices of 500 anemic patients. The automated analyzer SYSMEX XP-100 was used.Simultaneously, a peripheral smear was prepared according to standard operating procedures and stained by Leishman stain. Results: The cases consisted of normocytic normochromic anaemia (14%), microcytic hypochromic anaemia (76.2%), macrocytic anaemia (0.4%) and dimorphic anaemia (13.4%). In normocytic normochromic anaemia on peripheral smears 65.7% showed normal curve. In microcytic hypochromic anaemia 81.1% showed left shift. In cases of macrocytic anaemia 100% histogram showed right shift. Majority of the curves in dimorphic anaemia showed broad based curve (46.26%). Discussion: The relationship between histogram patterns and peripheral smear diagnosis in dimorphic anaemia posed queries regarding the validity of histocytograms. Hence, peripheral smear examination along with clinical history is an important diagnostic tool while handling the patients with hematological conditions.