MCV stands for Mean Corpuscular Volume. In plain English that's the average size of the red blood cells. It is usually determined by machine, but can be calculated manually like this:
MCV = (PCV / RBC count) X 10.
Increased MCV or "macrocytosis" may be due to:
-Regenerative anemia: Immature RBC's are larger than mature RBC's, so a high MCV is one indicator of regenerative anemia although reticulocytes and nRBC's should also be looked at.
-Clumped platelets: Clumps of platelets may be counted as RBC's by the CBC machine. If this is suspected a slide should be made from the same blood sample that was used to run the CBC in order to check for clumped platelets.
Decreased MCV or "microcytosis" may be due to:
-Extreme spherocytosis: Usually spherocytosis does not result in a decreased MCV, but in extreme cases it can.
No comments:
Post a Comment