BLOOD COUNTS

Blood counts are very frequently encountered in medical reports and a proper and
complete knowledge of it is a must for a good transcriptionist, so as not to end up in a big
mistake making a mockery of it. The blood count is calculated based on number of blood
cells in a cubic millimeter of blood.

Complete Blood Count (CBC):
The complete blood count consists of white blood cell count, red blood cell count,
hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelet count, and differential blood count. Refer to the normal
laboratory values section.

These are transcribed in Arabic numerals. There is no punctuation between the value and
the particular entity of blood count.

For example: Hemoglobin 10.8

Differential Blood Count:
Differential blood count consists of the percentage of each type of white blood cell that
makes the total white blood count. It includes polymorphonuclear neutrophils (polyps,
PMNs, or segs), eosinophils (eos), basophils (basos), lymphocytes (lymphs), monocytes
(monos), and band neutrophils (bands). They can be dictated either as percent or as
number but in all circumstances their total should always come to 100. This important
fact should always a good transcriptionist error-free while reporting blood counts.