Hemoglobin lab

Question 1

Anaemia

Answer 1

Oxygen is carried by red blood cells (RBC) with hemoglobin (Hb) proteins.
Anaemia has poor oxygen transport because too few RBC or Hb.
Symptoms: fatigue, weakness
Diagnostic: laboratory test of Hb or Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV: average amount of red blood cells. Hematocrit/ Red Blood cell count)
Small RBC if lack of iron
Large RBC if lack of vitamin B12

Question 2

Haemoglobin test

Answer 2

too few: anaemia
too much: dehydration/ pulmonary disease
Normal: 8.5 - 11 mmol/l men 7.5 - 10 mmol/l women
Anaemia: <8, <7
Put a drop of blood on test strip, wait 30 sec, compare to scale
Hemocue: shake blood, take pipette and put a drop on hydrophobic surface, fill the microcuvette (looks like slice of glass) in 1 process, wipe off excess blood, make sure no bubble or redo, hemocue ready to use if 3 horizontal lines on screen, put microcuvette in

Question 3

Hematocrit

Answer 3

The hematocrit is the proportion, by volume, of the blood that consists of red blood cells
Tube: wax plug, red blood cells, buffy coat, plasma (yellow)
Can inspect: color & clarity plasma + size buffy coat
Normal: 40-50% men 36-44% women
Use glove
Mix blood (don’t shake)
Hold capillary tube horizontal and fill it to 75%
still horizontally, plug dry end in seal clay: 1cm
Put in centrifuge, wax away of the center
Put tube against reference scale, bottom red cells on 0, top plasma on 100. Look top RBC to read hematocrit level