Autoagglutination of red cells at room temperature can cause which of the following abnormal test results?

Autoagglutination of red blood cells occurs when antibodies in the blood cause red blood cells to clump together. This can significantly impact various hematological tests.

When red blood cells aggregate, they can give the appearance of a lower count when using automatic cell counters. This is because the analyzer may not accurately count the clumped cells as separate entities, leading to a low red blood cell count.

In terms of mean corpuscular volume (MCV), autoagglutination can affect the measurement as well. When red blood cells are agglutinated, they may not be suspended individually in the solution, which can cause the analyzer to misinterpret the volume of the individual cells. The result can lead to a falsely elevated MCV due to the difficulty in accurately measuring the size of the agglutinated cells.

Similarly, hematocrit, which measures the proportion of blood volume that is occupied by red blood cells, can also be falsely low because the agglutination may affect the settling of red cells in a centrifuge, thus providing a skewed representation of the actual red cell volume.

Since autoagglutination can lead to distortions in both RBC count, MCV, and hematocrit, it is