What is the morphology of red blood cells?

Red cell morphology is evaluated in terms of size, shape, colour, distribution and intra cytoplasmic inclusions. In general, red cells have a fairly uniform variation in size, with a red cell distribution width of 11–15% in normal individuals.

What is a red blood cell ghost?

Ghost Cells. If RBCs become swollen in dilute urine to the point that the cell membrane ruptures, the cell loses its hemoglobin so that only the membrane and free hemoglobin remain. These empty membranes are known as “ghost” cells.

What are red blood cells donut shaped?

Red blood cells are shaped kind of like donuts that didn’t quite get their hole formed. They’re biconcave discs, a shape that allows them to squeeze through small capillaries. This also provides a high surface area to volume ratio, allowing gases to diffuse effectively in and out of them.

What is the significance of RBCs unique shape?

Red blood cells have a unique structure. Their flexible disc shape helps to increase the surface area-to-volume ratio of these extremely small cells. This enables oxygen and carbon dioxide to diffuse across the red blood cell’s plasma membrane more readily.

What does RBC morphology +1 mean?

Abnormal results mean the size, shape, color, or coating of the RBCs is not normal. Some abnormalities may be graded on a 4-point scale: 1+ means one quarter of cells are affected. 2+ means one half of cells are affected.

What does unremarkable RBC morphology mean?

When the appearance of RBCs (RBC morphology) is normal, it is often reported as normochromic (normal color) and normocytic (normal size). While not every RBC will be perfect, any significant number of cells that are different in shape or size may indicate the presence of disease.

What do ghost cells indicate?

A ghost cell is an enlarged eosinophilic epithelial cell with eosinophilic cytoplasm but without a nucleus. The ghost cells indicate coagulative necrosis where there is cell death but retainment of cellular architecture. In histologic sections ghost cells are those which appear as shadow cells. They are dead cells.

What does oval shaped red blood cells mean?

Ovalocytosis – hereditary. Hereditary ovalocytosis is a rare condition passed down through families (inherited). The blood cells are oval-shaped instead of round. It is a form of hereditary elliptocytosis. Red blood cells (RBCs) are normally round.

What is a biconcave shape?

A biconcave disc — also referred to as a discocyte — is a geometric shape resembling an oblate spheroid with two concavities on the top and on the bottom.

Why the shape of RBC is Biconcave?

The basic feature of biconcave structure is that it has more surface area than the flat surface. Thus their biconcave shape gives blood cell a larger surface area – which increases the ability to absorb oxygen.