To the editor:With great interest I have read the recent paper by Cui and colleagues regarding optimized criteria for microscopic smear review after automated hematology analysis.1Although they have reached a certain level of optimization with their approach,I believe that considerable further optimization could have been achieved if the clinical relevance of performing smear reviews was taken into account.In my opinion,smear review should only be performed when the objective is to find clinically relevant abnormalities and as all hematologists know,not all morphologic abnormalities that can be seen microscopically,are clinically relevant.For example,it has been demonstrated that finding left shift or counting band neutrophils has no additional value over reporting absolute neutrophil counts.2 Thus laboratories should not spend time on finding morphological abnormalities that do not have any effect on the diagnostic or therapeutic process.