Anisocytosis

Anisocytosis
Classification and external resources
ICD-10 R71
ICD-9 790.09
DiseasesDB 725

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[1] 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

Increased RDW is seen in iron deficiency anemia, Thalassemia Major (Cooley's anemia), Thalassemia Intermedia and myelodysplastic syndromes

References

  1. Barbara J. Bain (2006). Blood cells: a practical guide. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 66–. ISBN 978-1-4051-4265-6. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  2. "Anisocytosis". http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2098635-overview#aw2aab6b4.