The main difference between bone marrow aspiration and bone marrow biopsy: bone marrow aspiration is to extract a certain amount of bone marrow fluid for cytological examination, and bone marrow biopsy is to take a strip of bone marrow tissue for pathological examination.
1. Bone marrow aspiration is generally used for bone marrow cytomorphology examination, which is mainly used to observe the changes in the morphology and number of cells in the bone marrow smear, in order to understand the hematopoietic status of the bone marrow. Bone marrow cytomorphometry is commonly used to diagnose leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, multiple myeloma, aplastic anemia, megaloblastic anemia, Gosheimer’s disease, and so on.
2. Bone marrow biopsy is to take a piece of bone marrow tissue and make a section to observe the degree of proliferation of bone marrow nucleated cells, the main components of the proliferating cells, the structure of the bone marrow with or without abnormalities and interstitial changes, etc. Bone marrow biopsy is more complicated than bone marrow smear.
Bone marrow biopsy can more accurately reflect the degree of bone marrow proliferation and detect bone infiltration than bone marrow smear. Bone marrow aspiration smear can better reflect the morphology of the cells because it is not dewaxed, fixed or embedded, etc. Therefore, the combination of the two examinations can improve the accuracy of diagnosis.
Bone marrow aspiration and bone marrow biopsy have their own advantages and disadvantages and complement each other, so they are often used jointly in the diagnosis of hematologic diseases. The specific operation should be performed by a physician.