IEP Chandigarh
PGIMER’s Hematology Department has established an Advanced Fully Automated Hemogram Laboratory catering to the institute’s heavy OPD patient workload. This was inaugurated by the Director, Professor Vivek Lal on Tuesday. Director said that the new laboratory is fully equipped with the latest instruments to test blood samples, and automatically prepare slides for examination by pathologists. The hemogram includes tests like hemoglobin, platelet count and white blood cell count as well as differential count, reticulocyte count etc. These are very commonly requested tests by the clinical services, and this new initiative will cut down the time for reports to 4 to 6 hours, from the previous turn-around time of about 15 hours. In addition to the basic tests, the new machines are also equipped with sophisticated new features like fluorescent platelet counts (useful in dengue patients), detection of fragmented red blood cells in microangiopathic anemia as well as early detection of iron deficiency through reticulocyte hemoglobin content. They will also detect abnormal cells in patients with infections and blood cancer. This will further enhance the patient care services as well as aid the research activities of the institute, he added.
