Background: Anemia is a common problem worldwide. Morphological typing of anemia provides a lot of information about the underlaying cause and guides the treatment. Red cell indices which is a quick and easy to determine, can be used to determine the morphological type of anemia. Methods: This is a prospective study for one year. All the peripheral blood smears received by the department during study period were studied and the smears with pathological diagnosis of anemia were included in the study. A complete hemogram was done for all samples to get the RBC indices and PBF examination was done and both the findings were compared and analysed. Results: We received a total of 479 samples for PBF examination. 354 (74%) smears were reported as having anaemia and were included in the study. There was a female predominance in our study with M: F ratio of 1: 1.94. The age of patients ranged from 12 years to 59 years with the median age of 41 years. On complete blood count based on haemoglobin concentration, 162 (45.76%) cases showed mild anaemia, 144 (40.68%) showed moderate and 48 (13.56%) showed severe anaemia. According to age, the most common affected age group was 6th decade in our study with 39.55% cases followed by third decade with 22.60% cases. Mild anaemia was most prevalent in all the age groups as compared to moderate and severe anemia and the difference between the number of cases with mild, moderate and severe anaemia were not statistically significant (p-value = 0.3002). On basis of red cells indices, the anaemia was grouped in Microcytic hypochromic anemia with raised RDW with 125 cases which was the most common finding in our study. There were 59 cases of Microcytic hypochromic anemia with normal RDW, 67 cases of Normocytic normochromic anemia with normal RDW, 49 cases of Normocytic normochromic anemia with raised RDW and 54 cases of Macrocytic anemia. Conclusions: Our present study demonstrates that red cell indices are a good initial screening for typing the anemia with good sensitivity and specificity. However, the role of peripheral blood smear by an experienced pathologist cannot be died in identifying the morphology of red cells in anemia. We feel that in cases with mismatch in CBC and clinical data of patients and in confusing cases, smear examination should be carried out.

Background: Anemia is a common problem worldwide. Morphological typing of anemia provides a lot of information about the underlaying cause and guides the treatment. Red cell indices which is a quick and easy to determine, can be used to determine the morphological type of anemia. Methods: This is a prospective study for one year. All the peripheral blood smears received by the department during study period were studied and the smears with pathological diagnosis of anemia were included in the study. A complete hemogram was done for all samples to get the RBC indices and PBF examination was done and both the findings were compared and analysed. Results: We received a total of 479 samples for PBF examination. 354 (74%) smears were reported as having anaemia and were included in the study. There was a female predominance in our study with M: F ratio of 1: 1.94. The age of patients ranged from 12 years to 59 years with the median age of 41 years. On complete blood count based on haemoglobin concentration, 162 (45.76%) cases showed mild anaemia, 144 (40.68%) showed moderate and 48 (13.56%) showed severe anaemia. According to age, the most common affected age group was 6th decade in our study with 39.55% cases followed by third decade with 22.60% cases. Mild anaemia was most prevalent in all the age groups as compared to moderate and severe anemia and the difference between the number of cases with mild, moderate and severe anaemia were not statistically significant (p-value = 0.3002). On basis of red cells indices, the anaemia was grouped in Microcytic hypochromic anemia with raised RDW with 125 cases which was the most common finding in our study. There were 59 cases of Microcytic hypochromic anemia with normal RDW, 67 cases of Normocytic normochromic anemia with normal RDW, 49 cases of Normocytic normochromic anemia with raised RDW and 54 cases of Macrocytic anemia. Conclusions: Our present study demonstrates that red cell indices are a good initial screening for typing the anemia with good sensitivity and specificity. However, the role of peripheral blood smear by an experienced pathologist cannot be died in identifying the morphology of red cells in anemia. We feel that in cases with mismatch in CBC and clinical data of patients and in confusing cases, smear examination should be carried out.