Hematology Case 3

30 yrs. old Male , illegal Somalis immigrant

Differential Cell count:

NEUTRO: 61% LYMPHO: 25.8%

MONO: 6.9% EOSINO: 6%

BASO: 0.3%

Spirochetes found in Peripheral smear in both thin and thick film

• Spirochete from Greek for “coiled hair”
• Thin (0.1-0.5 µ) , helical, long (5- 20 µ),, Gram –ve bacteria, motile by periplasmic flagella.
• 3 Genera are pathogenic to human: Treponema , Borrelia , Leptospira.

Borrelia: Can be seen by light microscopy, stained by Giemsa or Wright stain but Not for Lyme disease (here bacteria are rarely seen in blood)

Diagnosis is usually performed by Giemsa staining of thin blood smears, using the same dye as for malaria diagnostics.