RBC indices<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Mean corpuscular volume (MCV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a. Definition: The MCV is the average volume of the RBCs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
b. Frequently used to classify anemia into a:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(1) microcytic anemia: MCV <80 \u00b5m3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(2) normocytic anemia: MCV 80\u2013100 \u00b5m3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(3) macrocytic anemia: MCV >100 \u00b5m3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Mean corpuscular Hb concentration (MCHC)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a. Definition: MCHC is the average Hb concentration in RBCs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
b. Clinical significance of a decreased MCHC<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(1) Correlates with decreased RBC synthesis of Hb (e.g., iron deficiency anemia)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(2) Recognized by noting that the central area of pallor in a RBC is greater than normal<\/p>\n\n\n\n
because there is less Hb in the cell<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 This is called hypochromasia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
c. Significance of an increased mean corpuscular Hb concentration<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(1) Correlates with the presence of spherical RBCs, which occurs in hereditary spherocytosis (HS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Mature RBCs are biconcave disks (discussed later).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(2) Spherocytes lack the central area of pallor that is present in a mature RBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. RDW<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a. Definition: RDW is a measure of the variation in the size of the peripheral blood RBCs (i.e., small ones, big ones).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(1) Size variation is called anisocytosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(2) RDW value is only clinically significant if it is increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
b. RDW is increased if RBCs are not uniformly the same size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Example: peripheral blood shows a mixture of microcytic and normocytic cells<\/p>\n\n\n\n
c. RDW is most useful in distinguishing iron deficiency from other causes of a microcytic anemia (small RBCs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(1) Iron deficiency is the most common microcytic anemia with an increased RDW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 RDW is increased because of a mixture of normocytic and microcytic RBCs in the peripheral blood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RBC indices 1. Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) a. Definition: The MCV is the average volume of the RBCs. b. Frequently used to classify anemia into a: (1) microcytic anemia: MCV <80 \u00b5m3. (2) normocytic anemia: MCV 80\u2013100 \u00b5m3. (3) macrocytic anemia: MCV >100 \u00b5m3. 2. Mean corpuscular Hb concentration (MCHC) a. Definition: MCHC is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-med"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kidneydiseaseclinic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kidneydiseaseclinic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kidneydiseaseclinic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kidneydiseaseclinic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kidneydiseaseclinic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kidneydiseaseclinic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":652,"href":"https:\/\/kidneydiseaseclinic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kidneydiseaseclinic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kidneydiseaseclinic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kidneydiseaseclinic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}