Alamo Feline Health Center, San Antonio, TX, USA.
Department of Small Animal Clinical Science, Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, College Station, TX, USA.
J Feline Med Surg. 2021 Feb;23(2):79-85. doi: 10.1177/1098612X20926357. Epub 2020 Jun 1.
It can be challenging to collect sufficient blood from feline patients for both a biochemical profile and a complete blood count (CBC). The ability to generate accurate hematologic and biochemical data from a single, small (<2 ml) sample could reduce patient stress and improve clinical efficiency. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of preheparinization and/or sample size on routine hematology findings in cats.
Blood was collected from 20 healthy cats; measured aliquots were placed directly into tubes containing either EDTA or lithium-heparin (Hep). Within 2 mins, specific volumes were removed from the Hep tubes and placed in additional EDTA tubes. Four distinct sample sizes/types were created from each cat: (1) 1.3 ml EDTA (criterion standard); (2) 0.5 ml EDTA; (3) 1.3 ml Hep + EDTA; and (4) 0.5 ml Hep + EDTA. Three CBCs were performed on each sample using an automated bench-top hematology analyzer. Drops of blood were contemporaneously used to create three air-dried stained slides from each tube. Triplicate results were averaged for statistical analysis; results were compared across all sample types and against the criterion standard. Significance was set at <0.05.
Preheparinization did not significantly impact determinations of erythrocyte number, hematocrit, hemoglobin concentration, mean cell volume and neutrophil count. Platelet counts for the non-traditional samples correlated poorly with the criterion standard, although numbers could be effectively estimated using stained slides. Cell morphology was well preserved across all sample types.
These results indicate that a 0.5 ml preheparinized EDTA blood sample can generate clinically useful hematologic data (excluding platelet count) in cats, using a bench-top analyzer. Our findings support the collection of a single small (<2 ml) sample that can be used for both biochemical and hematologic analyses. Further studies are needed to verify these findings using other hematology machines and in diseased cats.
从猫科动物患者中采集足够的血液用于生化分析和全血细胞计数（CBC）可能具有挑战性。从单个小样本（<2 毫升）中生成准确的血液学和生化数据的能力可以减轻患者的压力并提高临床效率。本研究的目的是确定肝素化前处理和/或样本量对猫常规血液学检查结果的影响。
从 20 只健康猫中采集血液；测量等分样本直接放入含有乙二胺四乙酸（EDTA）或肝素锂（Hep）的管中。在 2 分钟内，从 Hep 管中取出特定体积并放入额外的 EDTA 管中。从每只猫中创建了四种不同的样本大小/类型：（1）1.3 毫升 EDTA（标准对照）；（2）0.5 毫升 EDTA；（3）1.3 毫升 Hep+EDTA；和（4）0.5 毫升 Hep+EDTA。使用自动台式血液学分析仪对每个样本进行了 3 次全血细胞计数（CBC）。从每个管中用血液滴制作了三张空气干燥的染色载玻片。对重复测量结果进行了平均处理，以进行统计分析；比较了所有样本类型与标准对照的结果。显著性设置为 <0.05。
肝素化前处理对红细胞数、血细胞比容、血红蛋白浓度、平均细胞体积和中性粒细胞计数的测定没有显著影响。非传统样本的血小板计数与标准对照相关性较差，但使用染色载玻片可以有效地估计数量。所有样本类型的细胞形态均得到很好的保存。
这些结果表明，使用台式分析仪，猫的 0.5 毫升肝素化 EDTA 血样可以生成具有临床意义的血液学数据（血小板计数除外）。我们的发现支持采集单个小样本（<2 毫升），用于生化和血液学分析。需要进一步的研究来使用其他血液学仪器和患病猫验证这些发现。
