Erythrocyte Disorders: Peripheral Smear Review: Introduction

Ways out of the dilemma

  • What clear courses of action might the clinician take if the technologist reports out from this smear 3+ acanthocytes, 1+ target cells and occasional helmet cells?
  • Gleaning information from the review of peripheral blood smears is important for the technologist, physician, and surely for the patient.
  • Extreme pressures of time constraints and shifting dynamics in communication, from face-to-face encounters to dependency on technology, make innovative solutions to physician-patient information dilemmas imperative.
  • Reporting systems often are geared more toward retrievability, suiting the needs of administrators and record keepers rather than being clearly directed toward improving patient care outcomes.
  • A prime solution to this communication dilemma is to provide technologists with written descriptions and images of specific abnormal findings from peripheral blood smears. With a high degree of probability, these may link directly with underlying information connected to diseases. Mutually understood terms must be established to convert subjective qualitative peripheral blood smear findings into mutually understandable information.
  • For example, regarding the smear shown, it was learned that the patient had recently undergone splenectomy. Creating an integrated communication system for information sharing (providing essential patient information by telephone follow-up or use of a system for e-mail feedback) can help ensure a favorable clinical outcome.

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