Morphology Monday | Case MM260511
Valentine’s Day might be behind us, but today’s case is in full bloom this morning. This film is covered in “flowers,” though these aren’t the kind you’d want to receive in a bouquet.
MM260504: Cold agglutinins
When the sample arrived in the lab, it had a “sandy” or gritty appearance inside the EDTA tube. Under the microscope, the red cells weren’t just overlapping; they were physically stuck together in irregular, massive clumps, leaving large empty spaces on the slide.
Morphology Monday | Case MM260504
Last week, I was helping my niece with her English homework. We were working on an exercise where you have to complete the sentence with the missing verb. It inspired me to try a little “fill-in-the-blanks” with you guys.
MM260413: B-ALL
The patient, a newly turned 18-year-old, presented on Christmas Day with a classic triad of acute leukaemia symptoms: malaise (from anaemia), spontaneous bruising (from thrombocytopenia), and deep bone pain. The latter is a frequent finding in paediatric and young adult ALL, caused by the rapid expansion of the bone marrow cavity by malignant lymphoblasts.
Morphology Monday | Case MM260413
I came across the results of a patient who had just celebrated their 18th birthday, only to then find themselves admitted to the hospital on Christmas Day. What started as “holiday fatigue” quickly evolved into a clinical picture that demanded urgent haematological investigation.
MM260323: Babesia
The pathognomonic feature of Babesia is the Maltese Cross a tetrad of four daughter merozoites joined together. While our images showed a “partial cross” rather than a perfect tetrad, this arrangement is a definitive “smoking gun” that excludes malaria.
Morphology Monday | Case MM260323
This week’s case involves a 58-year-old patient who presented to the Emergency Department with a five-day history of worsening “flu-like” symptoms, including high fevers, drenching sweats, and significant fatigue.
MM260302: Loa Loa
The parasite identified is Loa loa, a filarial nematode endemic to West and Central Africa. It is transmitted to humans via the bite of an infected Chrysops fly (deer fly).
Morphology Monday | Case MM260302
This week’s case involves a 34 year old aid worker, who recently returned to the UK after spending two years in West Africa, with significant time spent in the rainforest regions.
MM260216: Southeast Asian Ovalocytosis
Southeast Asian ovalocytosis is a common hereditary red cell membrane disorder in parts of Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines. Unlike other forms of elliptocytosis, these cells are exceptionally rigid.