Question

If 32 packed volume units of cells are separated from 46 volume units of plasma from a blood sample, the haematocrit is _______ percent. The haematocrit value is ______range.

Answer 1

Answer:

If 32 packed volume units of cells are separated from 46 volume units of plasma from a blood sample, the hematocrit is 41,02% percent. The hematocrit value is within the normal range.

Explanation:

Hello!

Hematocrit (or packed cell volume -PCV-)is defined as the percentage of red blood cells (vol%) in a blood sample. One common method of determining it is by centrifuging a heparinized blood sample in a capillary tube at 10 000 RPM for five minutes. This separates the blood sample in two layers, formed elements (RBC and WBC) and Plasma.

The length of the layers is directly measured from the tube and represents the volume of packed cells and plasma. Since the number of white cells is negligible compared to the number of red cells, the formed elements are considered to represent the red blood cells.

The hematocrit can be calculated as the volume of packed cells divided by the total volume of the blood sample.

$\frac{PCV}{TOTAL(pcv+plasma} * 100$

In the question:

$\frac{32}{32+46} * 100$ = $\frac{32}{78} * 100$ = 41,02%

In humans the normal hematocrit range is 40,7% to 50,3% for men and 36,1% to 44,3%. Taking these reference values into consideration, this sample is within the normal range.

I hope you have a SUPER day!