Blood smear monolayer detection

A method for the detection of a diagnostically usable red blood cell (RBC) monolayer region in a blood smear preparation or a subsection of the blood smear preparation, comprising the steps of:

• (a) determining the area coverage of RBCs in the blood smear preparation or the subsection of the blood smear preparation with respect to spacing and distance of the cells to neighboring cells;
• (b) determining the hemoglobin distribution of RBCs in the blood smear preparation or the subsection of the blood smear preparation;
• (c) determining a presence of non-RBC cells or abnormal RBCs in the blood smear preparation or the subsection of the blood smear preparation;
• and
• (d) assigning a diagnostic usability label (classification) to the blood smear preparation or the subsection of the blood smear preparation if
• (i) in step (a) the area coverage is identified with a distance between an RBC and its neighboring cell of about 1.0 to 2.0 RBC diameters;
• (ii) in step (b) a central pallor region is identified in the RBC, wherein the central pallor region comprises about 25 to 40% of the RBC diameter;
• and
• (iii) in step (c) no non-RBC cell or abnormal RBC is identified or an identified non-RBC cell or abnormal RBC is marked and excluded from further analysis.