More reliable erythrocyte parameter MCH than MCV for screening thalassaemia trait

Objective To compare the reliability of erythrocyte parameter mean corpuscular volume(MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin(MCH) for screening thalassaemia trait. Methods A fresh venous blood sample with the cut-off value of MCV was sent to 21 hospitals of Zhuhai city for conduct the full blood cell analysis within 1 d. Then the inter- and intra- coefficient of variation (CV) as well as bias values of MCV and MCH were calculated and compared. In addition, 10 EDTA- anticoagulant venous blood samples were divided into two parts, the effects of stored temperature and time on MCV and MCH were observed. Results The coefficient of variation(CV) of MCV (4.1%) was significantly greater than that of MCH (2.8%) among 21 laboratories, the qualification rate of MCH detection results was 100%, which was significantly higher than 66.7% of MCV (P0. 05). When these s