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Anisocytosis
Human red blood cells from a case of anisocytosis.

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 on a complete blood count by, an elevated WBC count, "agglutinated RBCs," RBC fragments, giant platelets/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 deficiency, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, cytotoxic chemotherapy, chronic liver disease, myelodysplastic syndrome

Increased RDW is seen in iron deficiency anemia and decreased. Or normal in thalassemia major (Cooley's anemia), thalassemia intermedia

• Anisocytosis with normal RBC size – Early iron, vit B12 or folate deficiency, dimorphic anemia, Sickle cell disease, chronic liver disease, myelodysplastic syndrome

Etymology※

From Ancient Greek: an- without, or negative quality, iso- equal, cyt- cell, -osis condition.

See also※

• Anisopoikilocytosis
• Poikilocytosis
• Red blood cell distribution width

References※

External links※

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