Aspirate Information and Courses from MediaLab, Inc.
These are the MediaLab courses that cover Aspirate and links to relevant pages within the course.
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| Which of the following is the most suitable specimen for the isolation of Bordetella pertussis: | View Page |
| Collection of the Aspirate The marrow aspiration is usually performed before a biopsy is done. A syringe is attached to the needle, the plunger is pulled and 1.0-1.5 ml. of marrow particles and blood from marrow sinuses is withdrawn. If additional bone marrow samples are needed, a separate syringe must be used each time. If more than 2 cc. per syringe is taken out, the blood to marrow ratio will be too high and the preparations will not accurately reflect the marrow contents. As the marrow is aspirated into the syringe the patient will feel some pain and pressure even though local anesthetic has been administered. | View Page |
| Advantages of a Biopsy Specimen Examining the biopsy allows the structure of the marrow to be viewed as it exists in the body. It provides essential diagnostic information in conditions that disrupt the normal architecture, such as metastatic carcinoma, myelofibrosis, Hodgkin's lymphoma and granuloma. A biopsy may also be used to evaluate cellularity and identify acid-fast bacteria or fungi in less time than is needed for routine culture methods. One disadvantage of the tissue sections prepared from the biopsy sample is that morphologic detail is lost. For this reason, in many cases imprint slides or smears from the aspirated sample are also examined. | View Page |
| Which of the following statements are TRUE for aspirated specimens? | View Page |
| Collection of Bone Marrow Biopsy A bone marrow biopsy involves removing a small portion of the bone marrow without destroying the architecture of the marrow. This type of biopsy is necessary when the marrow cannot be aspirated (dry tap) due to a disease process, and also provides additional information complementary to that derived from the aspirate: biopsy specimens are more accurate for assessing cellularity, and infiltrative processes, such as metastatic carcinoma, fibrosis, amyloid, and lymphoma. A biopsy specimen is processed as follows: touch preparation tissue section | View Page |
| This photomicrograph is a representative field of a Wright-Giemsa-stained bone marrow aspirate in which a pair of budding yeast cells is seen centrally (arrows). Based on the appearance of these yeast cells, what other test would you expect to be positive? | View Page |