Doctor lurker here… lost my mind over this thanks to you guys
I work in Critical Care. I enjoy this subreddit because it‘s opened my eyes to the complex wizardry that occurs in the labs, and it’s really cool to get a glimpse behind-the-scenes.
I have seen posts on here about the critical green neutrophil inclusions, aka death crystals, which I’d never heard of before.
Anyway, recently I was asked to review a patient in the ED (hypotensive, pyrexial, CRP 450, platelets 30, marked renal failure), and I saw this on their results.
I knew this guy was sick but this cinched the deal, and was an interesting finding! None of my physician or nursing colleagues had ever heard of it but were (mostly) interested when I told them (I think some were probably confused by my excited rambling lol).
Interestingly the patient wasn’t in liver failure and his Liver Function and Clotting panel were normal. He received vasopressor support and dialysis for a week before improving and being discharged from our unit. Blood cultures positive for staph, possibly device related.
Anyway just wanted to thank you guys for the cool stuff you post here - I probably would have skipped over this finding otherwise. And if you search ’death crystals’ this subreddit is one of the top results.