Getting started

    The Basics

    Reactive changes

    Sources of Error

    Practice Quiz

• The biggest source of error is not matching the results with clinical situation. Not just for the CBC, this one'll get you for everything.
• Clerical errors.
• Right name (?), bar code (?)
• Did the results go in the wrong record?
• Can you really read that FAXed copy?
• Sampling errors.
• With a clotted sample, nothing is valid. (If you draw the blood in a syringe and then try injecting it into the anti-coagulated tube, it'll clot every time, even if it doesn't look it.)
• Did you draw the sample above an IV line? Is it diluted with fluid?
• If the tubes aren't kept rocking right up until the moment the aliquot is sent into the machine, the cells will settle out and the aliquot won't be representative. (You know, did the aliquot come from the cell rich end of the tube?)
• Errors of judgment.
• Is the problem with the quality of the cellular elements?
• Is the problem with the quantity of the cellular elements?

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