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Image: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine - Jacksonville

Hematopathology Case Studies

Case 1

Peripheral blood smear from a 39-year-old female with thrombocytopenia.

A neutrophil with a Dohle body:

An eosinophil with Dohle body:

More images of giant platelets and dohle bodies within neutrophils:

Case Discussion

This a case of May-Hegglin Anomaly, an uncommon autosomal dominant disorder. Patients with this condition have somewhat characteristic peripheral blood smears by Wright stain:

  • The neutrophils contain oval pale blue inclusions which are usually found in periphery of the cytoplasm
  • These inclusion can also be found in eosinophils, basophils and monocytes
  • Giant platelets are also present

Most patients with this genetic disorder often have some clinical symptoms, but it does not usually affect the patients normal life-span.

Ultrasturctural analysis of the neutrophil inclusions have shown it to consist of RNA.

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