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Blood Disorders Affecting Red Blood Cells
Blood Disorders Affecting Red Blood Cells
Professor: Ms Lugtu
BSMDT-1B
14-3052-975
Anisocytosis is a medical term meaning that a patient's red blood cells are of
unequal size. This is commonly found in anemia and other blood conditions. False
diagnostic flagging may be triggered by an
elevated WBC count, agglutinated RBCs, RBC
fragments, giant platelets or platelet clumps. In
addition, it is a characteristic feature of bovine
blood.
The red cell distribution width (RDW) is a
measurement of anisocytosis and is calculated
as a coefficient of variation of the distribution of
RBC volumes divided by the mean corpuscular
volume (MCV)
Types
Anisocytosis is identified by RDW and is
classified according to the size of RBC measured
by MCV. According to this, it can be divided into
Anisocytosis with microcytosis - Iron deficiency, sickle cell anemia
Anisocytosis with macrocytosis - Folate or vitamin B12 defeciency, autoimmune
hemolytic anemia, cytotoxic chemotherapy, Chronic liver disease, Myelodysplastic
syndrome
Increased RDW is seen in iron deficiency anemia, Thalassemia Major (Cooley's
anemia), Thalassemia Intermedia and myelodysplastic syndromes
Anisocytosis with normal RBC size - Early iron, vit B12 or folate deficiency,
dimorphic anemia, Sickle cell disease, chronic liver disease, Myelodysplastic
syndrome
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Poikilocytosis refers to the presence of poikilocytes in the blood. Poikilocytes are
abnormally shaped red blood cells as seen on a blood film in humans and many wild
and domestic species of animals, though they are common in some clinically normal
small ruminants, particularly goats.
Normal red blood cells are round, flattened disks that are thinner in the middle than
at the edges. A poikilocyte is an abnormally shaped cell.[2] Generally, poikilocytosis
can refer to an increase in abnormal red blood cells of any shape where they make
up 10% or more of the total population.
Membrane abnormalities
1. Acanthocytes or Spur/Spike
cells
2. Keratocytes
5. Spherocytes
4. Schistocytes
5. Semilunar bodies