page_title: Bone marrow examination
section_title: Components of the procedure
hierarchical_section_title: Bone marrow examination / Components of the procedure
caption_attribution_description: English: Section of bone marrow core biopsy as seen under the microscope. Stained with H&amp;E. Author: Gabriel C. Caponetti, MD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_marrow_examination
context_page_description: Bone marrow examination refers to the pathologic analysis of samples of bone marrow obtained by bone marrow biopsy and bone marrow aspiration. Bone marrow examination is used in the diagnosis of a number of conditions, including leukemia, multiple myeloma, lymphoma, anemia, and pancytopenia. The bone marrow produces the cellular elements of the blood, including platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells. While much information can be gleaned by testing the blood itself, it is sometimes necessary to examine the source of the blood cells in the bone marrow to obtain more information on hematopoiesis; this is the role of bone marrow aspiration and biopsy.
context_section_description: Bone marrow samples can be obtained by aspiration and trephine biopsy.  Sometimes, a bone marrow examination will include both an aspirate and a biopsy.  The aspirate yields semi-liquid bone marrow, which can be examined by a pathologist under a light microscope and analyzed by flow cytometry, chromosome analysis, or polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Frequently, a trephine biopsy is also obtained, which yields a narrow, cylindrically shaped solid piece of bone marrow, 2 mm wide and 2 cm long (80 μL), which is examined microscopically (sometimes with the aid of immunohistochemistry) for cellularity and infiltrative processes. An aspiration, using a 20 mL syringe, yields approximately 300 μL of bone marrow. A volume greater than 300 μL is not recommended, since it may dilute the sample with peripheral blood.
  Aspiration does not always represent all cells since some such as lymphoma stick to the trabecula, and would thus be missed by a simple aspiration.
caption: Section of bone marrow core biopsy as seen under the microscope (stained with H&E).
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "100", "Image YResolution": "100", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:10:13 13:32:33", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2065", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "12657", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1674"}