Several artifacts can cause significant and potentially misleading alterations to measured RBC parameters: 
1. Old samples cause RBCs to swell, thus increasing PCV and MCV and decreasing MCHC; 
2. Lipemia causes a falsely high Hgb reading, and hence a falsely high MCHC; 
3. Hemolysis causes PCV to decrease while Hgb remains unchanged, again leading to a falsely high MCHC; 
4. Underfilling of the tube causes RBCs to shrink, causing PCV and MCV to decrease and MCHC to increase; 
5. Autoagglutination causes a falsely low RBC count, and hence a falsely high MCV.

Satyendra Dhar MD @DharSaty
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Satyendra Dhar, MD @DharSaty · 2 years ago
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