Blood, 1958, Vol. 13, No. 12, pp. 1185-1191.
© 1958 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
A Method for the Measurement of Red Cell Dimensions
and Calculation of Mean Corpuscular
Volume and Surface Area
DONALD N. HOUCHIN 1,
JOHN I. MUNN 1, and
BENJAMIN L. PARNELL 1
1 Department of Hematology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Washington, D.C.
1. A photomicrographic method was devised for the measurement of the
dimensions of red cells in rouleaux in plasma. With normal blood valid conclusions were drawn from 80 cell measurements with a high degree of confidence.
2. The mean corpuscular volume and the surface area were computed from
these dimensions by formulae which treated the cell as a spheroid.
3. The dimensions, mean corpuscular volume and surface area of normal
human red cells were as follows: 8.28 µ diameter, 1.71 µ thickness, 82 µ3
volume and 134 µ2 surface area.
4. The computed mean corpuscular volume was in agreement with the
refractometric determination.
Submitted on January 7, 1958
Accepted on April 12, 1958
