DEMO DEMOPCV Method - Obtain blood sample
PCV (haematocrit - Hct) is a measure of the volume of the blood occupied by the RBC's and is expressed in units of litres per litre or as a percentage. A small sample of capillary blood is drawn into a heparinised haematocrit tube by capilliary action. The tube should be filled to between 60% and 95% full.
The tube is sealed at the top end, inverted and centrifuged at 12,000 g for 5 minutes.
Place the tube in the holder of the haematocrit reader. Move the holder to set the top of the sample at 1.0 and the bottom at 0.0 on the scale.
Slide the moveable ruler down to a position level with the top of the packed cells and measure the PCV from the vertical scale.
In this example the PCV would be 0.54 litres per litre or 54%.
Normal Range (M 0.40 - 0.54) (F 0.37 - 0.47)