Quantification of red blood cell fragmentation: usefulness of heating cells and of automatic counting devices.

Spontaneous red blood cell (RBC) fragmentation occurs in some membrane erythropathies like hereditary elliptocytosis (HE); this phenomenon is produced in normal RBC by heating at 49 degrees C, but not at temperatures below this limit; fragmentation is usually quantified by counting the number of fragments/1000 RBC under light microscopic examination. The present work demonstrates: i) that enumeration of fragments is performed more precisely with an automatic blood cells counter on the 'platelet' channel; and ii) that heating at 48 degrees C enhances the fragmentation of RBC when they have a severe disruption of skeletal lattice, like in HE.