[drahmednawaz]

I myself don't know how to read a smear. Usmle doesn't want you know that much.

One thing they surely want u to know about it.

Their is a very high while blood cell count; but that much a high count also occurs in leukemias. So how would you differentiate between two. Usmle wants to know what laboratory value u would send?

Well alkaline phosphatase. in leukemoid reaction, cells are normal; so would have high alkaline phosphatase value. in leukemas cells are abnormal, don't express alkaline phos; so would have low values.

 

[drahmednawaz]

We call it leukemoid, because a very high neutophil count gives a leukemia like picture on slide. We call it reaction, b/c it occurs in response to/as a reaction to some severe infection or infarction.