Atypical scattergram of a canine peripheral blood sample on ProCyte Dx

Abstract

Abstract A 9‐year‐old, spayed, female fox terrier was presented to the veterinary clinic for two episodes of partial convulsions. On ProCyte Dx peripheral blood analysis, an atypical scattergram was associated with peripheral mastocytaemia that was confirmed on peripheral blood smear evaluation. This observation was suspicious for a visceral mast cell tumour that was confirmed on cytological evaluation of the spleen. Mastocytaemia is an uncommon haematological abnormality, and has been reported in a variety of conditions, both neoplastic and non‐neoplastic. On the scattergram, mast cells were to the right of the monocyte cloud, which was likely due to their granularity, large mononuclear size and the higher RNA/DNA content. To our best knowledge, mast cells are not included in the list of parameters of the ProCyte Dx analyser. Technicians, clinical pathologists and residents should be aware of this unusual scattergram pattern, which imposes the review of peripheral blood smear.