Nursing Central: Complete Blood Count, RBC Indices

Complete Blood Count, RBC Indices

Interfering Factors

Drugs and substances that may decrease the MCHC include styrene (occupational exposure).
Drugs that may decrease the MCV include nitrofurantoin.
Drugs that may increase the MCV include colchicine, pentamidine, pyrimethamine, and triamterene.
Drugs that may increase the MCH and MCHC include oral contraceptives (long-term use).
Diseases that cause agglutination of RBCs will alter test results.
Cold agglutinins may falsely increase the MCV and decrease the RBC count. This can be corrected by warming the blood or diluting the sample with warmed saline and then correcting the RBC count mathematically.
RBC counts can vary depending on the patient’s position, decreasing when the patient is recumbent as a result of hemodilution and increasing when the patient rises as a result of hemoconcentration.
Care should be taken in evaluating the CBC after transfusion.
Venous stasis can falsely elevate RBC counts; therefore, the tourniquet should not be left on the arm for longer than 60 sec.
Failure to fill the tube sufficiently (i.e., tube less than three-quarters full) may yield inadequate sample volume for automated analyzers and may be a reason for specimen rejection.
Hemolyzed or clotted specimens should be rejected.
Lipemia will falsely increase the hemoglobin measurement, also affecting the MCV and MCH.

Complete Blood Count, RBC Indices has been found in Davis's Lab & Diagnostic Tests

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