TY - JOUR T1 - Automatic wedge smears preparation may cause traumatic morphological changes in peripheral blood cells JF - Journal of Clinical Pathology JO - J Clin Pathol SP - 168 LP - 171 DO - 10.1136/jclinpath-2017-204580 VL - 71 IS - 2 AU - Antonio La Gioia AU - Maurizio Fumi AU - Paola Pezzati AU - Fiamma Balboni AU - Ylenia Pancione AU - Lucia Rocco AU - Silvia Sale AU - Maria Bombara AU - Marcello Fiorini AU - Fabiana Fiorini AU - Vincenzo Rocco Y1 - 2018/02/01 UR - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/71/2/168.abstract N2 - In recent years, several automated analysers that prepare and stain blood smears have been introduced in clinical laboratories. Despite the use of instrumental settings based on physical characteristic of individual samples, traumatic injuries of neutrophil and lymphocytes can be observed. Some samples present a very high percentage of damaged cells, allowing the speculation that a cellular susceptibility may enhance mechanical traumatism. These artefacts can puzzle morphological evaluation in both traditional and digitised microscopy; in addition, unskilled operators can be misled. ER -