Table 2.

Characterization of blood smears under different preparation conditions.

Variable		Erythrocytes	Leukocytes	Platelets	Smear Background
Time before fixation (hours)	0	x	x	x	x
	2	x	x	x	x
	4	x	x	x	x
	6	x	x	x	Blue gray streaks
Fixative	ethanol 90%	Water artifacts	x	x	x
	pure anhydrous ethanol	x	x	x	x
	pure anhydrous methanol	x	x	x	x
Time between fixation and staining (hours)	0	x	x	x	x
	6	x	x	x	x
	12	x	x	x	x
	18	x	x	x	x

x: acceptable.