Question

During a routine medical check up of a healthy man it was found that his haematocrit value was highly unusual-value of 60%. What one of the options below is the most likely reason? 1. He will have a diet high in iron. 2. He is likely to be suffering from anaemia. 3. He lives at high altitude 4. He has recently recovered from an accident where he lost a lot of blood. 5. He has a very large body size. A sample of blood was taken from the above individual and prepared for haemoglobin analysis. However, when water was added the cells did not lyse and looked normal in size and shape. The technician suspected that they had may have made an error in the protocol - What is the most likely explanation? 1. The cell membranes are more resistant than normal. 2. An isotonic solution had been added instead of water. 3. A solution of 0.1 M Naci had been added instead of water. 4. Not enough water had been added to the red blood cell pellet. 5. The man had sickle-cell anaemia, A further sample of blood was taken from the above individual and prepared for haemoglobin analysis. To 18 mis of blood, 2 mis of anticoagulant were added and 5 mils of this sample was centrifuged and a 26 ml pellet of red blood cells obtained. 10 mis of water were added and mixed to lyse the cells before a further centrifugation to remove cell membranes from the sample. 1 ml of this sample was further diluted by the addition of 5 mils of water to provide a stock sample of haemoglobin What was the final dilution factor for this haemoglobin stock solution? 1.16.76 2.1.67 3.12.47 4.1.51 5.61.89

Answer 1

1. Normal hematocrit value for adults is 42%-54%. 60% hematocrit value indicates high number of RBCs in blood. High number of RBC in blood can seen in case of high altitude adaptation, chronic smoking, dehydration etc. The man lives at high altitude. Option 3 is the correct alternative here.

2. An isotonic solution had been added instead of water. Isotonic solutions are those solutions which have same concentration in respect to each other. If RBCs are kept in isotonic solution, then it's cell membrane doesn't lyse.