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Red blood cells (erythrocytes)
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Red blood cells, which show up in lab reports under their technical name, erythrocytes, are the cells that travel through the blood delivering oxygen. They don't do it with the body of the cell itself: inside, they carry hemoglobin, the protein that binds oxygen and releases it where it's needed. Picture a delivery truck and the cargo riding in the back. The two always travel together, which is why people mix them up, but one is the cell and the other is the protein inside it.
When anemia is being looked into, the same tube of blood answers two questions that are not the same: how many of those trucks are out there circulating, and how big each one is. One number is about quantity, the other about size. If the red blood cells are off, tissues get less oxygen than they need, and that is as far as the finding goes: spotting it doesn't yet say what caused it.
In brief
Red blood cells, also called erythrocytes, carry oxygen using the hemoglobin inside them. The cell and the protein have related roles, but they are not the same thing.
When describing anemia, clinicians can measure how many red blood cells are present and how large they are. These are two different measurements: one describes cell number, the other cell size.
An abnormality in red blood cells can reduce oxygen delivery to tissues, but that finding alone does not explain why the abnormality developed.
Sources (3)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood InstituteBlood Tests
- World Health OrganizationAnaemiaPublished
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood InstituteAnemiaPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated