Microscopical examination of the buffy coat from the haematocrit in the investigation of anaemia in pregnancy.

Microscopical examination of the " buffy coat" is an accepted butnotwidely adopted haematological procedure. It is particularly valuable in the diagnosis of pernicious anaemia, aleukaemic leukaemia, malaria, and disseminated lupus erythematosus. In the diagnosis of anaemia in pregnancy and the puerperium this simple technique has received only scant attention; thus a mere mention of its use is made by Lille, Gatenby, and Moore (1954). The purpose of this paper is to show how useful it can be in the diagnosis particularly of pernicious anaemia of pregnancy.