Hematology: Introduction to blood

Not only vampires are obsessed with blood – hematologists love blood as well!  In this simulation, you will generate complete blood counts and prepare blood smears of control and patient samples to diagnose various blood disorders in three patients. Dive into the inner workings of the different blood components with immersive 3D animations, where you will get acquainted with the morphology and function of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

Analyze complete blood counts

First, you will learn how to prepare control and patient blood samples for the automatic hematology analyzer. Before proceeding to the analysis of complete blood counts, you will first have to understand the difference between hematocrit and plasma and where white blood cells and platelets are found after separation of blood components. Then, explore the importance of each output from the hematology analyzer, including values for mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC).

Prepare peripheral blood smears

Continuing your investigation, you will then have to carefully prepare blood smears of multiple patients for observation using a light microscope and identify different blood cells using a Giemsa stain. Compare healthy and unhealthy morphologies of red and white blood cells and hypothesize the reason for each abnormality seen. To complete your hypothesis, relate the results of the blood smears to the results from the automatic hematology analyzer.

Help diagnose various blood disorders

Throughout the simulation, the results of the experiments are saved and recorded for you to compare at the end of the simulation. Based on your new conceptual understanding of each blood component and results from the blood analysis, will you be able to help a doctor to diagnose the different blood disorders in your three patients?