Leishman stain —Junior Lab Assistant PSC
PREPARATION OF BLOOD FILMS ON SLIDES Blood films should be made on clean glass slides. Films made on coverglasses have negligible advantages and are unsuitable for modern laboratory practice. Films may be spread by hand or by means of an automated slide spreader, the latter being either a stand-alone instrument or a component of an automated blood cell counter. Manual method Blood films can be prepared from fresh blood with no anticoagulant added or from ethylenediaminetetra-acetic acid (EDTA)-anticoagulated blood. Heparinised blood should not generally be used because its staining charac- teristics differ from those of EDTA-anticoagulated blood. Good films can be made in the following manner using clean slides, if necessary wiped free from dust immedi- ately before use. Slides should measure 75 × 25mm and be approximately 1mm thick; ideally, they should be frosted at one end to facilitate labelling, but these are more expensive. First, make a spreader from a glass slide that has...