Preparation of slide mounted blood sample - including exposure to fixing agent to maintain cell morphology

摘要

A blood specimen consisting of a monolayer of sepd. blood cells is prepd. on a slide suitable for automated analysis. A sample is spun on the slide about an axis perpendicular to a support for a short time to develop a monolayer. This separates the red blood cells and throws excess cells radially outwards to form an evenly distributed monolayer. This monolayer is subjected to a fixing agent subsequent to the spinning operation and prior to drying. This fixes the natural shapes of the cells before they flatten during drying. The slide is finally dried. The method is used to prepare a blood cell specimen for diagnostic analysis. The cells are fixed during a critical step of their preparation so that their morphology is preserved for later analysis.