You grab an arterial blood gas, but the numbers aren’t matching the clinical picture. Here’s a quick checklist: The sample: Clean stick? Flash? Pulsed as it self-filled? Looked arterial (red)? Exposure to room air (air bubbles, loose cap, etc,) can falsely ↓PCO2 and ↑PO2. The CO2: If the PaO2 is scary low, the PaCO2 will […]
Clinpath
Degenerates!
Neutrophils can commonly be seen on cytology. The presence of degenerate neutrophils should alert us to the likely presence of bacteria. Bacterial toxins affect neutrophil nuclei and cytoplasm causing pyknosis, karyorrhexis, karyolysis, and cytoplasmic basophilia and vacuolation. If you’re like me, you’ve forgotten most of the big words you learned in vet school. So what’s […]