Peripheral Blood Smear Test

A peripheral blood smear is a laboratory test in which a thin film of blood is spread on a glass slide, stained with special dyes, and examined under a microscope by a trained technologist or pathologist.

Unlike an automated CBC, which relies on machine counting, a blood smear allows direct visual assessment of the size, shape, color, and maturity of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets — details that can reveal abnormalities a simple count might miss entirely.

It's often ordered as a follow-up to an abnormal CBC result, helping doctors distinguish between different causes of anemia, identify blood parasites like malaria, or spot the abnormal cell shapes characteristic of certain blood cancers.

Because it depends on human interpretation, the quality and experience of the reviewing technologist matters, and results are typically reported descriptively rather than as a single numeric value.