Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present some of the advantages of examining sections of bone marrow. For this study the impression received by examining 155 bone marrow smears from 154 patients are compaired with information gathered from sections of this marrow. Forty eight of the sections were of insufficient quantity for proper evaluation. Failure of the aspiration is probably related to both the individual’s technique and the disease. The determination of cellularity made from smears were apparently wrong in 38 out of 110 of these cases. In 9 cases, the misinterpretation was considered extremely serious as hypercellular marrow was misjudged to be hypocellular. This was largely due to small amount of marrow being diluted with peripheral blood. In all cases, if the smear appears to be hypocellular, this should be confirmed by examination. This is especially important when making a diagnosis of aplastic anemia. Also found in the sections were 2 cases of matastatic carcinoma, 2 cases of malignant lymphoma, and 4 cases of mucinous degeneration of the stromal adipose tissue, all of which were impossible to be diagnosed on the smear. In addition, the section is good for evaluation of the number of the megakaryocytes and mitotic figures, and for some extrahematopoietic cells or tissues besides those of malignant origin.