What Is the Difference Between Hematocrit and Hemoglobin Hematocrit and hemoglobin measurements are both blood tests but they are not testing the same thing. Hematocrit is the percentage of red cells in your blood.
Hemoglobin enables red cells to transport oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout your body. Normal hemoglobin for men ranges from Normal range for women is Schedule an appointment. Why Donations Are So Important Recent studies show that there is a need for blood transfusions every 2 seconds. Learn More About Blood Components. Learn More. Show references Sandoval C.
Approach to the child with anemia. Accessed March 24, Schrier SL. Approach to the adult patient with anemia. Types of blood tests. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Tefferi A. Diagnostic approach to the patient with polycythemia. Hoffman R, et al. The polycythemias. In: Hematology: Basic Principles and Practice. Philadelphia, Pa. CBC with differential, blood. Mayo Medical Laboratories.
In a hematocrit test, the red blood cells are separated from the rest of your blood cells and plasma. Hematocrit is important because red blood cells are essential to your survival. They contain a vital protein component called hemoglobin that binds to oxygen, which fuels all the cells in your body.
When red blood cells pass through your lungs, they bind to and transport oxygen to various cells in your body. On their way back to your lungs, they carry carbon dioxide to be exhaled. Hematocrit is a significant measurement as it can identify whether you have sufficient red blood cells for oxygen transportation and delivery.
If your doctor suspects that you have a blood disorder such as anemia or polycythemia too many red blood cells , your doctor may order a hematocrit test to check your red blood cells. The original method for hematocrit measurement is the macrohematocrit Wintrobe hematocrit tube method.
It uses a narrow glass tube and a centrifuge machine. The centrifuge separates the blood into three main layers: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets, in that order from the bottom up. The macrohematocrit method carries the risk of measuring trapped plasma as part of the red blood cell layer, which erroneously elevates the hematocrit percentage. A newer method is the microhematocrit method, which uses a capillary tube instead of a narrow glass tube and requires a smaller quantity of blood and less time.
The microhematocrit method traps less plasma because the diameter of the capillary tube is smaller than the Wintrobe hematocrit tube. So the percentage of hematocrit is more accurate in the microhematocrit method than in the macrohematocrit method. Both procedures require the technician to manually measure the length of the layers. The technician calculates hematocrit as the length of the packed red blood cell layer divided by the length of total cells and plasma.
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