I remember the capillary tubes and…. Maybe a TB test? Something on the inside of the fore arm with multiple needles.

Lyme disease? I grew up in an area which had a lot of ticks.

Possibly for Iron test? It's one they do when I give blood and that's how they do it.

Shoot, I remember we had to do the lancet stick to ourselves in 8th grade science class.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
...Maybe a TB test? Something on the inside of the fore arm with multiple needles...

OP's case is a finger prick blood draw. TB skin testing is injecting a small amount of tuberculin right under the skin of the forearm and measure the local skin reaction 48-72 hours later. Two completely different processes.

Yeah, I remember that. Seems to me that was also done by a nurse in school every once in a while.

It was to check for anemia. They'd do a stick, draw a little into a pipette, and drop it in, I think, distilled water. My brother had to have it done often for a couple of years when we were very young. He'd always faint and he'd get a chocolate milkshake. The one time they did me, I "fainted" and was told to stop faking.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
Lyme disease? I grew up in an area which had a lot of ticks.

My experience with the capillary tubes predates identification of Lyme disease.

I saw the need to dust off my Hematology textbook (now 42 years old); the old qualitative test used by the Red Cross for donation test used a copper sulfate solution after the finger or ear stick.

PCV. Packed cell volume. Per what sjtill said. I worked in an avian only veterinary clinic and we always grabbed a sample to see the PCV, the Buffy coat (white cells), etc..
It was (at that time) a quick and easy read of health.
We usually ran it in conjunction with a CBC. Knowing the types and number of blood cells can give you a decent indication of what’s going on in the system.
Of course, a chemistry really clarifies things…

It was to show you who was boss.

Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was...

(Once in a Lifetime)

Polio virus.

... or, Polio virus.

"Marco?"

"Polio!"

(game we played as a kid, glad I never won...)

quote:

Originally posted by rat2306:
Could have been for two reasons among several; to get a hematocrit and hemoglobin levels, or to make a slide for red blood cell morphology, white blood cell count, etc. The hemoglobin test is what the Red Cross would perform prior to you donating blood for example. Before all of the whiz-bang auto-analyzer technologies for hematology tests
that was how it was done.

rat2306 - you are absolutely correct!

I started working in a hospital laboratory as an aide/trainee while in high school in 1958.
The finger-stick (or ear lobe) could provide a WBC, RBC, Hemoglobin, Hematocrit and a blood smear for differential analysis under the microscope. (WBC = white blood cells; RBC = Red blood cells; Hemoglobin and Hematocrit = percent of red cells by volume; visual for what kind of white cells and evaluation of red cell shape, size and color density).

As rat2306 says, all of those analyses are now done by machinery and computers, although the blood smear may require review by a human being!

Personal note to rat2306 - are you trained in the laboratory sciences? You are obviously more knowledgeable than most people I meet outside the medical field!

Yep, tleddy; I was a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy. I trained as a Medical Lab Tech (after active duty) in the early '80s. We did WBC differentials via stained slide, a key type of recorder, and microscope. In late '83 during clinicals I was introduced to the wonders of the Coulter S Plus II, and a Hematrak.
Alas, the community college I completed training from had cranked out many more tech trainees than the area job market, so I went to a local university for a B.S. in Biology and worked in occupational health and safety for 30 some years. Several others have a lab background; almost all of my sample collection using capillary tubes were for bilirubin tests in newborns. I maintained my ASCP MLT certification until the mid '90s.