PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Doig, Kathy
AU  - Thompson, Leslie A.
TI  - A Methodical Approach to Interpreting the White Blood Cell Parameters of the Complete Blood Count
AID  - 10.29074/ascls.30.3.186
DP  - 2017 Jul 01
TA  - American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
PG  - 186--193
VI  - 30
IP  - 3
4099  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/30/3/186.short
4100  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/30/3/186.full
SO  - Clin Lab Sci2017 Jul 01; 30
AB  - List the white blood cell parameters of the complete blood count.Describe the principle of analysis for each of the white blood cell parameters of the complete blood count.Recognize instances in which the white blood cell count may be spurious and require technical or mathematical correction before reporting.Apply appropriate techniques to spurious white blood cell counts to achieve valid counts.Given relative differential counts and total white blood cell count, calculate absolute white blood cell differential counts.Use proper terminology to describe elevations and decreased of white blood cell numbers and differential cell counts.Given the white blood cell parameters of a complete blood count, apply a methodical approach to interpretation of the results for diagnostic and clinical purposes.Consistent use of a methodical approach to interpreting complete blood count (CBC) results can help detect spurious results that require remedy before results are reported. It can also help ensure that no clinically important information is overlooked during diagnostic interpretation of the results. The steps for interpreting the white blood cell portion of the CBC are: Ensure that nucleated red blood cells or other conditions are not falsely affecting the white blood cell count (WBC); correct the WBC if needed, before proceeding.Examine the WBC for variations in the total number of white blood cells.Interpret absolute differential counts against appropriate reference intervals using proper terminology.If absolute counts are not available from an instrument, use relative counts (i.e. percentages) to calculate absolute values.Make note of immature cells in any leukocyte cell line reported in the differential that should not appear in normal peripheral blood.Make note of any morphological abnormalities of wbcs.Correlate the wbc findings with red blood cell and platelet findings for a complete clinical assessment of the patient's blood picture. Explanations for conducting the evaluations are provided and the above steps are applied to example cases to demonstrate how this approach is used to interpret the wbc parameters of the CBC.ABBREVIATIONS: CBC - complete blood count, dL-deciliter, fL-femtoliter, g-gram, NRBC-nucleated red blood cell, rbc-red blood cell, RNA-ribonucleic acid, wbc-white blood cell, WBC-white blood cell count, μL-microliter