A 71 year-old woman is admitted to Le Mans hospital center for management of a chronic skin lesion. She has no personal nor familial bleeding history and does not take any medication. In peripheral blood collected with EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra-acetate), the platelet count is elevated and the blood film shows uniformly grey platelets. In sodium citrate-collected blood, platelets show no abnormality. We describe an EDTA-related artifact that is not to be mistaken for grey platelet syndrome.
Keywords: EDTA; Romanowsky stain; alpha-granules; artifact; blood film; grey platelets; sodium citrate.