Abstract
In Japan, most of the bone marrow aspiration smears have been made without any attention to the spicules. In this report, we introduced so-called spicule smear method, which has been commonly used in U.S.A. and Europe.
This fundamental difference is very important, because it can lead to a serious misdiagnosis.
Advantages of spicule smear technique are as follows:
1. Ease to obtain good specimen. 2. Ability to differentiate hypocellular marrow from false one due to poor aspiration technique. 3. Determination of bone marrow hemosiderin by Persian blue stain. 4. Estimation of the number of megakaryocytes.
We hope that this new aspiration technique will be widely accepted in our country soon.
