red blood cell indices red blood cell indices red blood cell indices are blood tests that provide information about the hemoglobin content and size of red blood cells. abnormal values indicate the presence of anemia and which type of anemia it is. red blood cell indicespurposeinformation about the hemoglobin content and size of red blood cells mean corpuscular volume mean corpuscular volume (mcv) is the average volume of a red blood cell and is calculated by dividing the hematocrit (hct) by the concentration of red blood cell count. mcv = hct [ rbc ] = normal range: 80–100 fl (femtoliter) mean corpuscular hemoglobin main article: mean corpuscular hemoglobin mean corpuscular hemoglobin (mch) is the average amount of hemoglobin (hb) per red blood cell and is calculated by dividing the hemoglobin by the red blood cell count. m c h = h b r b c normal range: 27-31 pg/cell mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration main article: mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (mchc) is the average concentration of hemoglobin per unit volume of red blood cells and is calculated by dividing the hemoglobin by the hematocrit. m c h c = h b h c t normal range: 32-36 g/dl red blood cell distribution width main article: red blood cell distribution width red blood cell distribution width (rdw or rdw-cv or rcdw and rdw-sd) is a measure of the range of variation of red blood cell (rbc) volume, yielding clues about morphology. erythropoietic precursor indices main articles: reticulocyte production index, erythropoiesis, nucleated red blood cell, and reticulocyte the reticulocyte production index (rpi) or corrected reticulocyte count (crc) represents the true significance of the absolute reticulocyte count to provide some reflection of erythropoietic demand and supply. the immature reticulocyte fraction (irf) goes a step further to cast more light on the same question. worked example measure units conventional units conversion hct 40% hb 100 grams/liter 10 grams/deciliter (deci- is 10−1) rbc 5e+12 cells/liter 5e+6 cells/μl (micro is 10−6) mcv = (hct/100) / rbc 8e-14 liters/cell 80 femtoliters/cell (femto- is 10−15) mch = hb / rbc 2e-11 grams/cell 20 picograms/cell (pico- is 10−12) mchc = hb / (hct/100) 250 grams/liter 25 grams/deciliter (deci is 10−1)