Teaching the clinical interpretation of peripheral blood smears to a second-year medical school class using the PeripheralBlood-Tutor computer program.

The interpretation of peripheral blood smears has an important role in the diagnosis of hematologic diseases and is, therefore, part of the education of physicians and technologists. We describe a computer program, PeripheralBlood-Tutor (Lippincott-Raven, Philadelphia, Pa), that teaches the morphologic features of normal and abnormal peripheral blood smears; we also describe the evaluation of the effectiveness of the program in 133 second-year medical students who were required to use the program in their hematology course. The version of the PeripheralBlood-Tutor used in the study had 2 distinct but equivalent 20-question examinations; one examination, the pretest, was taken before the students viewed the contents of the program, and the other examination, the posttest, was taken after completing the program.

Computer programs that teach the interpretation of image-based laboratory tests.

Objective: To review the effort of the University of Washington (UW) Department of Laboratory Medicine to develop and use personal computer programs to teach the interpretation of image-based clinical laboratory tests to medical technologists and other health care workers.

Data Sources: Professional journals and books; Software owned by and licensed by the University of Washington.

Study Selection: Not applicable.

Screening for alpha-thalassemia. Correlation of hemoglobin H inclusion bodies with DNA-determined genotype.

We evaluated potential screening protocols for alpha-thalassemia in a group of 80 patients whose genotypes were determined by Southern blot analysis with alpha- and zeta-globin DNA probes. Erythrocyte inclusion bodies were measured by a modified brilliant cresyl blue test. Erythrocyte indices and iron status were also measured.

Hemoglobin G trait and S trait in the same patient.

We describe a subject who had a positive sickle solubility test and a routine alkaline electrophoretic pattern showing three major hemoglobulin bands migrating to the A, S, and A2 positions. In addition, the non-heme protein carbonic anhydrase appeared to be increased, suggesting the presence of a split A2. Two major hemoglobin bands separated on agar gel electrophoresis using a citrate buffer, pH 6.