AO 97x blood smear phase test.

[apochronaut]

Dark M, Bright M and B-Minus L. 3 uncropped and 3 cropped.

[apochronaut]

Cropped.

[Crater Eddie]

Very interesting! I'm going to have to look at these for a while.
CE

[apochronaut]

Here's a few more with somewhat altered illumination but consistently so, across the 3 types.

Dark M, B-Minus L and Bright M in order top to bottom.
Interestingly, the relief created by the bright phase is the inverse of that created by the Dark and B-Minus, which based on the profile of an erythrocyte is accurate.

[zzffnn]

Very informative. Thank you apo.
B-Minus works better there, to my eyes.

[apochronaut]

Very informative. Thank you apo.
B-Minus works better there, to my eyes.

The last three were in the wrong order. I have changed them, correctly.

[zzffnn]

Thanks apo,
DSC01961 looks like B-Minus to my untrained eyes, while 1960 looks like Bright phase. I did not really pay attention to the figure labeling.

[billben74]

Thanks apo.
Nice comparison test.
Not having phase myself its really nice to see this kind of comparison exercise.

[charlie g]

Thanks for this blood work, apochronaught...for #1954 works best for scruitny of those RBC's.

What sort of treatment did you use to make the slide? Did you make this slide? charlie guevara

[apochronaut]

I had a nurse draw it into a sterile red cap plain clotting tube on Dec. 15. It was incubated since then at low room temperature. It was live and active and in fact, I looked at it last night and it still was.
Thin coverslip( .14) on thin smear.

[charlie g]

Thanks for the details, apo. I hope your nurse found you in good health. charlie guevara

[Crater Eddie]

I am interested in your choice of a red top clot tube instead of an EDTA tube. I'll admit that lab has been several years ago for me.
CE

[apochronaut]

She, and the physician she works for. are pretty compliant with me. If I want a tube of blood, she will just draw one for me, so the tube was at my behest.
However, the reason I am acquiring somewhat frequent tubes of blood from her, incubating them at varying temperatures or not, allowing clotting or requesting EDTA tubes or not, and then subjecting these various versions to microscopic scrutiny is that over the past 9 months or so, I have been expressing increased levels of a number of symptoms that over the years appear to have been consistent with Borelliosis. The time of infection probably goes back around 7 years but after numerous dead ends with various tests for various symptoms, Borelliosis kind of loomed large as a possibility, eventually. You have to understand, that at the time I became infected, tick borne diseases were not considered to be endemic to this area, so it went under the radar at that time. I am now right in that second to possibly tertiary stage of the infection, where immunoassay is useless. I test negative by the accepted , rather flaccid standard methodologies, a typical scenario for long standing infections, yet continue to microscopically demonstrate several L-forms of the organism in my live blood as well as spheroplasts and even at times the spirochaetes.
I haven't found any of the phase techniques to be that useful, as a tool to use as a basis for a photographic record for this condition. Undoubtedly, my skill with the camera, is a good part of this . In a live view, the imaging of these above phase images is surprisingly superior to that which I captured photographically. The serum portion of the blood can be seen to be just swarming, with very small, quite well resolved, what look to be branched or linked cocci; linked by small straight links. There can be various angles, with a link sometimes going backwards at an acute angle. This population of linked dots, evolved over about a day of incubation, from what originally appeared to be just a swarm of individual cocci, in the freshly drawn blood. This is consistent with research observations of the organism taking up residence in the blood as spheroplasts, when faced with aerobic conditions. These superficially resemble individual cocci but you never see division or chains, just the stick like branches growing over time. Under the anaerobic conditions that the sealed incubating slide eventually achieves, the spheroplasts morph into an obligate anaerobic form, the flagella-less ribbon alternate form of B. Burgdorferi, which often carry spheroplast like buds along their length.
Lida H. Mattman, the nobel nominated microbiologist, who paved the way, along with Gerald Domingue into the realm of atypical or L form bacteria, has extensively researched and covered in her writings, these forms of morphological changes in most of the commonly accepted bacterial forms, including spirochaetes.
For most of this routine monitoring , I have been using oil immersion DF. The chief advantage is the much greater depth of field that technique has , when compared to phase and the superior photographs of small transparent structures available with DF, although I continue to explore the potential with the various forms of phase too.

this was an answer for C. G. but to add, I have used an EDTA tube but prefer to used clotted blood mostly, to obtain an easy source of relatively clear serum . My lab tools are minimal and the serum is where most of the activity I am looking for is happening...although in a more mature form,,,(spirochaete reversion) the organisms do appear to attach and possibly can parasitize an rbc.

[Crater Eddie]

Ah, I see. I had no idea, obviously. Didn't mean to be nosey.
CE

[billben74]

Sad to hear of your illness apo.

[charlie g]

I hope you and your providers craft a treatment plan for you Apo. Observing blood samples seems like just a part of care.

Best of response this new year. charlie guevara