Three values are calculated mathematically and used mainly to measure the average size of the RBC, average hemoglobin weight and percent of hemoglobin per individual erythrocyte.

The mean corpuscular values are:

– Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), MCV is obtained by dividing the value of packed cells volume (PCV) on the RBCs count, and then multiply the results by 10. MCV is expressed in fl.

– Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin (MCH), which defined as the average weight of hemoglobin per individual RBC. MCH is obtained by dividing hemoglobin concentration on RBCs count and multiply in 10, MCH is expressed in pg.

– Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration (MCHC): the average percent of hemoglobin inside the RBCs. MCHC is obtained by dividing hemoglobin concentration on PCV and multiply by 100, MCHC is expressed in % or g/dl.

– The above measurements including MCV, MCH, MCHC are used to classify the anemia morphologically into macrocytic normochromic anemia, macrocytic hypochromic anemia, microcytic hypochromic anemia and normocytic normochromic anemia.