About Red Blood Cells

Prior I discussed some parameters used on the CBC. Of course nothing of that had a meaning if you don't know what we are looking for. Here is some of the aspects, terms for the red blood cells and how we related them to make a diagnosis on the patient that will help the doctor to treated correctly.

MCV = Mean Cell Volume
This parameter is use to identify the size of the cells. Even that normally is some variations in size of the red blood cells and is normal in recently born babies...other variations are abnormal.
Decreased MCV - Decreased MCV means that the volume of the cell is less than normal. The term used for decreased MCV is Microcytes. Microcytes are related with certain types of anemias ( we will discussed later about the term Anemia).
Increased MCV - Increased MCV means that the cell is larger than other normal red blood cells. The term used for increased MCV is Macrocytes. Macrocytes also are related with other type of anemia.
Normal MCV - Volume of the cell is normal and is refered as Normocytic. The term normocytic is used for classification of certain types of anemia.
The term used for variation in size is Anisocytosis.

MCH - Mean Concentration Hemoglobin
This parameter is used to identify the concentration of the hemoglobin. Along with the MCH we used also the MCHC = Mean Cell Hemoglobin Concentration. These two parameters are used in conjunction to identify possible variation in the content of hemoglobin on the red blood cells.
Two terms are use to describe these variations:
Hypochromia = When the amount of hemoglobin is decreased and the central pale area becomes larger and paler this is refer as Hypochromia.
When this happened usually the MCH and the MCHC are decreased.
Hyperchromia = Any increased of the MCH or the MCHC is refer as Hyperchromia.
Some conditions can show elevated MCH with normal MCHC or MCH normal with increased MCHC.

Variations in shape.
Normally the red blood cells have the same shape. Rounded with a central pale area
( we called bicocave disc). When there is a variation in shape we used the term Poikilocytosis.

Polycromatophilia
Normally the mature red blood cells when are stained maintain the red to pink color. When cells are not complete mature and its content is RNA the color stained maybe purple to light blue (polychromatophilia). These cells are maybe one or two days old. Increased polychromasia maybe due to marked blood loss or acute blood loss. In babies recently born is normal to see increased polychromasia.