Worth a Buy?

Read my review of this atlas as a licensed Medical Technologist. As a disclaimer, I am Amazon affiliate, so I will get a commission if you decide to buy anything through these links. This will help me keep this site going. However, I will give an honest review of everything and I am in no way obligated to this a positive review.

The pocket atlas is more useful as a quick reference for current lab techs with its descriptions for cell identification and reference images. Students using this for review might get bogged down with too many details that are not relevant to the ASCP exam. For example, many associated conditions are noted for various RBC morphology. While the associated conditions are accurate, they are too extensive for study. It is better to focus on what morphology is characteristic of different conditions.

This pocket atlas is organized into 8 sections including making blood smears, erythropoiesis, leukopoiesis, red blood cell morphology, benign & malignant white blood cells, platelet disorders, and normal values, complete with an index. Information is well organized with tables and charts. There are even cell comparisons which can be very helpful.

I hate to be so harsh here, but the main point of an atlas is its images. Unfortunately, this was published in 2013, and it shows in the image quality. A few of the images in here are really great. It is, at least, printed in color. However, most of the images are either blurry, grainy, or too dark. Additionally, most cell types or morphologies only have one image for reference. When it comes to cell identification, it is best to look at several images to get a thorough understanding of a cell’s characteristics. If you are still not comfortable on cell identification, I would not advise you to use these images as reference, as they can be misleading. The images are more suited as a quick reminder for experienced techs.

The spiral-bound version of this pocket atlas is about $46. As far as reference material goes, that is fairly inexpensive. I can’t say I regret the purchase, as I still own it. I would definitely wait until it’s on sale or get one used though.

While the images are poor quality, the information is very well presented. I would not recommend this for a student, but maybe a newer tech just for the descriptions of cell morphology.