Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration

(From June 2017 Paediatric Pearls Newsletter: Last in the “decoding the FBC” series by Dr Xanna Briscoe and Prof Irene Roberts for the time being)

Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin (MCH) is the amount of haemoglobin per red blood cell.  MCHC is an estimate of the concentration of haemoglobin in a  given number of packed red blood cells.

MCHC = (Hb[note]Hb:Haemoglobin[/note] ÷ HcT[note] HcT: haemotocrit or packed cell volume[/note]) x 100

Normal in children is 32-34% (adults 28-36%) depending on the lab

Chronic Anaemia

Iron Deficiency

Thalassaemia

spherocytosis

folic acid deficiency

Vit B12 deficiency

burns patients

sickle cell disease

 

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