Question

1. A blood smear is used to diagnose malaria. In patients with malaria, the protozoa can be found near and inside red blood cells. Explain why a microscope capable of high magnification and high resolution would be needed to diagnose malaria.

Structures inside a cell including protozoa are very small and cannot be seen with low magnification.

Malaria symptoms are non-specific and microscopy is the only way to discriminate between several diseases.

A microscope is needed to count the red blood cells present in a sample.

A compound microscope with high magnification and high resolution is used to get a clear, three-dimensional view of the protozoa and the shape of the red blood cells.

2. Histopathology is the use of microscopes to view tissues to diagnose and track the progression of diseases. Why are thin slices of tissue ideal for this procedure?

Thin slices are used so that pathologists can clearly see individual cells for their assessment. Too many layers of cells makes it difficult to focus and hard to see what changes have occurred in the tissues.

Thick sections would waste a lot of material and would require larger patient samples.

Thin slices are easier to prepare.

Thin slices are used because thicker tissue slices are more difficult to stain, and it is harder to see cellular details.

Answer 1

Answer 1:

A high magnification and high resolution microscope is used to diagnose malaria because by using such microscope one can be assured that whether a protozoa is inside the blood cell or not. By high magnification microscopic diagnosis we can know the level of malaria parasites in the blood which means amount of red blood cells being infected by malarial parasites. We can also know how much treatment is successful by using antimalarial drugs or we can also know the level of drug resistance. The microscopy also helps us to determine the different species of malaria in the red blood cells. The high magnification microscopic diagnosis also shows the structural changes in red blood cells due to malarial infection.

Answer 2:

For histopathology, thin slices of tissues are used because thin slices of tissues can be easily mounted and are also stained easily by the staining agents and moreover thin tissues are transparent to examine it by light or electron microscope. In the thinner section of tissues one can observe the details of cellular components by focusing properly and hence one can see clearly.