Master in Laboratory Medicine

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The curricular unit of Hematology I aims to teach and develop skills for the masters student in order to:

• understand the importance of blood and hematopoietic organs in the homeostasis of the human body and the clinical consequences of their dysfunctions
• apprehend the mechanisms of hemostasis that prevent bleeding and thrombosis
• recognize, in the immunohematology area, the importance of blood groups in both blood transfusion and hemovigilance, and in the hemolytic disease of the newborn
• know the analytical methods used in the field of hematology and learn to perform the most common ones
• learn to interpret the hematological, immunohematological and hemostasis results, both in physiological conditions or in the pathological situations that are addressed in the curricular unit
• value the right set of hematological determinations as diagnostic tests and is aware of their importance in the context of clinical analyses

Lectures
Blood composition and functions
Embryonic, fetal and postnatal hematopoiesis; hematopoietic organs
Bone marrow microenvironment, cytokines, cell adhesion molecules and stem cells
Erythrocytes: constitution, functions, metabolism, changes
Hemoglobin biosynthesis and genetic control
Granulocytes: functions, morphology and quantitative changes
Mononuclear phagocyte system
B, T and NK lymphocytes
Lymphatic system
Platelets: structure, functions, quantitative and qualitative changes
Primary hemostasis, coagulation and fibrinolysis
Blood groups and transfusion

Practical teaching:
Blood collection
Anticoagulants
Red blood cell indices
Automated hematology instrumentation
Quality control

Laboratory teaching:
ESR
Reticulocyte count
Blood smear (normal, abnormal) preparation and staining
Blood count in automated analyzer
Hemoglobin electrophoresis and HPLC analysis
Manual platelet count
Examination of normal bone marrow and other lymphoid organs
Red blood cell phenotyping