THE EFFECT OF FIXATION TIME VARIATION ON ERYTHROCYTE MORPHOLOGY IN PHERIPERAL BLOOD SEMAR (PBS) USING GIEMSA STAINING

Abstract

Background: Peripheral Blood Smear (PBS) is an important method in hematology examination to initiate blood cell transformation. The fixation process before staining plays an important role in maintaining the structure of erythrocytes. Variations in fixation time are thought to affect the results of erythrocyte morphology. Objective: To determine the effect of variations in fixation time (1 minute, 2 minutes, and 4 minutes) on erythrocyte morphology based on shape, size, and color with Giemsa staining. Methods: This study is a laboratory experimental study with 30 PBS samples fixed using absolute methanol for 1, 2, and 4 minutes. Staining was carried out using the Giemsa method and observed microscopically to assess erythrocyte morphology. Discussion: The results showed that at a fixation time of 2 minutes, all samples showed good erythrocyte morphology (100%). In contrast, at 1 minute, only 50% of the preparations showed good shape, while the rest showed moderate crenation. The fixation time of 4 minutes actually gave the worst results, with 60% experiencing moderate crenation and 40% experiencing poor crenation, this can be explained from the fixation process itself. Results: the results of observing the microscopic shape of erythrocytes on 30 samples obtained results at a fixation time variation of 1 minute obtained 5 preparations (50.0%) that had good cell shape and obtained 5 preparations (50.0%) with moderate crenation. Meanwhile, at a fixation time variation of 2 minutes obtained 10 preparations (100%) had good erythrocyte cell shape. And in the observation of peripheral blood smear preparations at a fixation time variation of 4 minutes found 6 preparations (60.0%) that had cell shape with moderate crenation, while there were also 4 preparations (40.0%) with poor crenation