Automatic wedge smears preparation may cause traumatic morphological changes in peripheral blood cells

Abstract

In recent years, several automated analysers that prepare and stain blood smears have been introduced in clinical laboratories. Despite the use of instrumental settings based on physical characteristic of individual samples, traumatic injuries of neutrophil and lymphocytes can be observed. Some samples present a very high percentage of damaged cells, allowing the speculation that a cellular susceptibility may enhance mechanical traumatism. These artefacts can puzzle morphological evaluation in both traditional and digitised microscopy; in addition, unskilled operators can be misled.

Keywords: Peripheral blood smears; automatic slide makers.; granulocyte dysplasia; leukocytes morphological changes; light microscopy review.