Irregular refractile granules which occur within red blood cells were first described by Heinz in 1890. The precise nature of these bodies is unknown. The present work was undertaken in order to help to assess the significance of the presence of Heinz bodies in the blood over a considerable period.Heinz bodies have been produced in the red blood cells of intact and splenectomized rats over relatively long periods by continuous feeding of azo geranine. The proportion of Heinzbody red blood cells quickly rose to a peak and then fell to fluctuating lower values; there was a concurrent fall in the red blood cell count and reticulocytosis. There were more Heinz-body red blood cells and a greater fall in the red blood cell count in the splenectomized animals. Large deposits of haemosiderin were present in the livers of the splenectomized animals fed the dye. Little or no haemosiderin was found in the livers of intact animals fed the dye or in those of splenectomized animals not receiving dye. Splenic hyperplasia accompanied the initial increase in Heinz-body red blood cells and remained undiminished after the level had fallen. The halftime survival of Heinz-body red blood cells transfused into normal rats was approximately one day compared with over five days in splenectomized animals. The anaemia associated with the appearance of Heinz bodies was found to be hypochromic: the mean cell haemoglobin concentration fell from 35-7y% before feeding dye to 26-7y% at the time of peak Heinz-body red blood cell concentration after seven days of dye feeding. With the subsequent fall in Heinz-body red blood cell level, approximately half of the deficiency in the mean cell haemoglobin concentration was replaced, despite a substantial recovery in the packed cell volume without an increase in the red cell count. Twenty days after feeding the dye had been stopped, no Heinz-body red blood cells were found, and all values had returned to normal.
The value of urinary cytology in the screening of a large industrial population at risk to bladder carcinogens has been amply demonstrated by Crabbe, Cresdee, Scott, and Williams (1956). The standard method of Papanicolaou and Marshall (1945) by which the exfoliated cells are prepared for examination consists simply of smearing the deposit of fixed centrifuged urine on to albuminized slides and staining. Unfortunately, this technique limits the diagnostic value of exfoliative cytology because only a small and possibly unrepresentative proportion of the cells in a given urine sample are prepared for examination, and these are so widely dispersed in the smiear that the labour of finding them further reduces the numbers actually seen. Determinations of the rates of exfoliation of transitional and squamous epithelial cells from the urinary tract in 12 normal males (Rofe, 1955) showed characteristic rates for individuals, the lowest of which was 6x2 thousands/hour and the highest 148 thousands/hour. An hour's urine sample, say 60 ml., might thus be expected to contain at least 6,000 cells, yet smears of urine sediment, which usually cover the whole area of a slide, are sometimes found to contain no cells or too few cells on which to report (Chute and Williams, 1948; Vincent Memorial Hospital, 1950;Deden, 1954). Presti and Weyrauch (1955) found as many as 22% of samples (100 ml.) produced smears containing less than six cells, but were prepared to interpret smears containing more than this number of cells: this might well account for the unsatisfactory results referred to by them. Schmidlapp and Marshall (1948) (Oppenheimer, 1920;Crabbe, et al., 1956) could be saved, as erythrocytes also appear in the preparation. TechniqueThe principle used has been stated earlier (Rofe, 1955).It consists of the fixation of cells of urinary sediment by alcohol followed by the solution of mucus by addition of water. The centrifuged mucus-free deposit is allowed 164 on 12 May 2018 by guest. Protected by copyright.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.