Figure 1. Peripheral smear from a patient with alcoholic liver disease. The hypochromic RBC to the right of center contains three small blue granular, irregular-shaped inclusions on the periphery of the RBC. These iron-containing (ferritin) granules are called Pappenheimer bodies and can be seen on a Wright-Giemsa stained blood smear. A Prussian Blue stain is need to confirm the presence of non-heme iron in the granules.
Figure 2. Multiple RBCs containing Pappenheimer bodies are seen in htis view. The granules are of variable size and are present predominantly in the polychromatophilic RBCs
Figure 3. The RBC in the lower left of the image contains numerous inclusions of variable size. Finer, smaller granules are noted in the RBC on the right.
Figure 4. A higher power view of the previous image shows the granules more distinctly. They essentially circumscribe the periphery of the polychromatophilic RBC.