Similar to peripheral blood, lymphocytes in fluids come in all sizes; however, a larger lymphocyte is not necessarily an abnormal or atypical lymphocyte.
In the image shown here, an atypical lymphocyte (blue arrow) is adjacent to the monocyte at the top of the smear. The atypical lymphocyte is almost as big as the monocyte; however, the nucleus is more regular. The amount of cytoplasm is similar between the two cells, but the atypical lymphocyte has a deeper blue shading at the edge of the cytoplasm.
