An Unusual WBC Scattergram and Its Possible Causes
Gene L. Gulati, Bong Hak Hyun · Laboratory Medicine · 1996
We present an unusual white blood cell (WBC) scattergram generated by the Coulter STKS (Coulter, Hialeah, Fla) on a blood specimen contaminated with fatty tissue during a difficult venipuncture. The fatty tissue contaminant caused the blood smear to appear greasy. Microscopically, the fatty globules appeared as round or ovoid empty spaces on the Wright-Giemsa–stained blood smear and as orange-red globular structures on the wet preparation made after staining the blood with Sudan III stain for fat. We conducted experiments to relate an unusual characteristic of the WBC scattergram (a tail in the shape of a hockey stick appearing on the right side) to the fatty tissue contaminant in the blood. We present and explain results of automated complete blood counts and differential leukocyte counts obtained on the specimen. Further studies on additional cases are needed to determine conclusively whether and how fatty tissue contaminant affects test results.