International Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Pathology

Amongst the various methods for estimating platelet count, the manual count of platelets on stained peripheral smears is most commonly employed. However, this method has limitations and the study of platelet count on unstained smears have been mentioned in only 3 literatures. Considering the effectiveness of unstained smears for platelet counting, we planned to use it and compare its results with stained smears. On 250 samples, platelet count estimation using unstained smears were observed under 100X objective, lowered condenser and closed iris diaphragm. Average of platelets in 10 fields were multiplied by 15000. Smears were stained, counted platelets and results were compared using Intra-class Correlation Coefficient. Platelet counts obtained from unstained smears were not significantly different from stained smears (p value 0.0001). Platelet count estimation on unstained peripheral smears can help reduce the need of stained smears and automated counters in emergencies where resources are limited and workload is more.