QUESTION

How to take a bfmp specimen?

ANSWER

BFMP, when relating to malaria, refer to blood films for malaria parasites. Usually, fingerprick or venous blood is collected from the patient and used to create both a thin and a thick blood film. If using venous blood, the sample should be mixed with an anticoagulant in a vacuum tube. For both thin and thick films, a drop of blood is first placed on a clean glass microscope slide. For the thin smear, take a second “spreader” slide, and place the short end at the edge of the drop of blood. Wait for the blood to seep along the whole edge of the spreader slide, then push the droplet forward quickly and smoothly to spread it thinly across the rest of the slide. For the thick film, take the corner of a second slide and use it to smear the droplet of blood into a circle of 1-2 cm diameter.

You should be able to read newsprint through it, but it should not be so large as to risk dropping off the edge of the slide. When both films have completely dried, thin films are fixed in 100% methanol before staining; thick films are not fixed. A variety of different stains can be used for detection of malaria parasites, though commonly used ones include Giemsa or eosin.