And The Band Neutrophil Counts Play On
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The authors, all of whom are current or former members of the CAP Hematology/Clinical Microscopy Committee, were spurred to do the survey in part because of band counting-related inquiries that coauthor Parul Bhargava, MD, found herself answering in CAP TODAY’s “Q&A” column.
The recent CAP proficiency testing questionnaire was meant to be the coup de grâc Hematology PT participants were asked about their band neutrophil reporting practices and, given that these manually generated counts were supposedly on their way out decades ago, the authors of the survey questionnaire expected to see very little activity.
The survey, they hoped, would be a way to pound the final, data- driven nail in the coffin.
Or, as lead author Maria (Ria) Vergara-Lluri, MD, puts it, “We thought this had all been laid to rest 30 years ago.” It wasn’t. Says Dr. Vergara-Lluri: “Surprise: 86 percent of labs that participated still report bands.”
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