Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge,
only a single study compared it with the buffy coat
smear (BCS). The BCS has been accepted for many
years for the diagnosis of human filariasis
, but veterinary
studies have exclusively focused on the direct
observation of the (unbroken) microhematocrit tube
at low magnification disregarding the use of BCS.
Direct observation of hematocrit preparations proved
to be useful in microfilaria screening, but has inherent
limitations in species identification, as morphologic
details are difficult to assess