How Useful Are CBC and Reticulocyte Reports to Clinicians in Addis Ababa Hospitals, Ethiopia

How Useful Are CBC and Reticulocyte Reports to Clinicians in Addis Ababa Hospitals, Ethiopia

Abstract

The CBC/Retics are routine Hematology tests that are very useful to differentially diagnose anemia and other medical conditions. A hospital based cross - sectional questionnaire survey was conducted from Nov –Dec 2010 on 408 clinicians working in Addis Ababa hospitals to ascertain the reports of CBC/Retics parameters perceived as useful in medical practice. Chi square was used to see statistical association between variables. P-value less than 0.05 were taken as statistically significant. Only four of the thirteen parameters in the CBC were selected as frequently or always useful by more than 85% of the clinicians. Health Officers were observed to use 12 of the 13 CBC parameters less than the other professional group; Interns and Residents demonstrated highest use of CBC results. More than a third of clinicians preferred WBC differential report in percent, rejecting the more useful absolute report. Reticulocyte parameters were not considered by majority of clinicians in patient management. Clinicians rated ‘average’ regarding the adequacy of clinical laboratory methods course during medical education. As service users, clinicians indicated mm³ as unit of preference in cell count on the laboratory report format. Overall, many clinicians do not use much of the data provided on routine CBC report. This should attract further research, and responsible bodies to intervene to promote use of CBC/Retics reports by clinicians for proper patient management.

Key words: CBC, Reticulocyte, Differential leukocyte count, Clinicians, Laboratory report form, CLM course

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