Mr Peter Woodland is a single, 6.2 feet tall, 81 kg and 30-year-old chemical engineer and working in Oil Industry in Darwin for past 4 years. He is regularly doing night shift. He often suffers sleeping and concentration problems and light-headedness. He has been feeling unwell for the past two weeks and has gone to see his GP Dr John Mathew in Tiwi Gardens. He presents with pale lips, brittle nails, sore mouth, fatigue, fever, night sweats and bruising. Peter’s doctor decides to request a full blood count. The blood sample is sent to a haematology laboratory in Berrimah.

The laboratory report that comes back shows that Peter has normocytic-normochromic anaemia, marked leucocytosis and marked thrombocytopenia. A blood film was made from Peter’s sample and examined microscopically. The report states that numerous blast cells were present in the blood film (50% of the white cells in Peter’s blood film are blast cells).

Answer The Questions

1. Explain the terms normocytic?normochromic anaemia, marked leucocytosis and marked thrombocytopenia.

2. Outline the significance of the presence of numerous blast cells in Peter’s blood.