Micronutrient diagnostics

The concentration of trace elements and minerals that are predominantly bound to red blood cells and therefore depend on the erythrocyte mass are subject to marked fluctuations. For example, an increase in the haematocrit value leads to an increase of the intracellular elements, while a decrease in the test results can be expected for extracellular elements, such as sodium and calcium. When the red blood cell mass is reduced, e.g. in anaemia, there is an inverse correlation. The disadvantages of whole blood analysis that does not take into consideration the haematocrit value are obvious: The statistical standard values specified in the literature do not take into account the individual erythrocytic cell mass, so that - with a high measured value - it is initially not possible to tell whether the micronutrient in question is actually elevated or whether only the cell content in the blood is elevated. The solution is to directly "correlate" the measured micronutrient results with the simultaneously measured haematocrit. The results obtained in this way are mathematically accurate and take the individual blood count parameters into account. Patient age and gender can therefore be reliably interpreted as "haematocrit independent".