Osmotic Fragility

General

Synonym/Acronym:
red blood cell osmotic fragility, OF.

Rationale
To assess the fragility of erythrocytes related to red blood cell (RBC) lysis toward diagnosing diseases such as hemolytic anemia.

Patient Preparation
There are no food, fluid, activity, or medication restrictions unless by medical direction.

Normal Findings
(Method: Spectrophotometry) Functional testing of RBCs by hemolysis (unincubated) begins in a hypertonic sodium chloride (NaCl) solution (e.g., 0.75%), is measured at a series of less hypertonic (incubated) solutions, and is complete (incubated) at 0.3% NaCl solution. Results are plotted and compared to a normal curve.

Osmotic fragility by hemolysis Normal: Within normal range curve (by comparing patient sample to known normal control)
RBC Band 3 Protein Reduction by flow cytometryNormal: No reduction in RBC Band 3 fluorescence detected; findings decrease the possibility of hereditary spherocytosis (HS)


Critical Findings and Potential Interventions
N/A

There's more to see -- the rest of this topic is available only to subscribers.