Blood smear showing a typical Bartonella-like bacteria (office lab)

 

These images are from my office lab which now performs in house, diagnostic blood smear examinations for our patients. All of these images come from patients with negative serological blood test results.

 

This a  Giemsa stain from my office lab. The tiny dot at the bottom of the slide is typical of Bartonella-like organisms. These are typically very small. The bacteria stains dark blue.  Note, the larger purplish splotch indenting a red blood cell comes from platelets. The larger cell is a typical white blood cell called by various names, including: neutrophil, poly, granulocyte.