What Does Low Rdw-cv Mean?

This doesn't really indicate that you have a problem. Basically it means that the variation of the size of your red blood cells is pretty small. This means that your blood appears to be fine and that you appear to be at no kind of health risk in this particular area.

• What exactly is RDW?

If your doctor has diagnosed you with a form of anemia, or an iron deficiency, then at some point down the line you are going to have to go for a blood test that looks at your RDW count. These RDW levels, combined with a number of other important counts in the blood, are there to allow your doctor to understand what kind of anemia you have and why the anemia has come about. These counts of your blood can tell a lot about your health. It is known that there are more than 400 kinds of anemia which can affect people today, which can even be broken down into their own subgroups that relate to blood loss, the demise of red blood cells and a bad red-cell production.

• What does it stand for?

RDW is the abbreviated form of 'red blood cell distribution width'. Lab Tests Online states that RDW is there to calculate the varying sizes of the red blood cell (or the RBC) volume within one blood sample taken from a patient. RDW tests are usually performed as a complete blood count and aren't usually done on their own.

Complete blood counts are required to obtain a full understanding of a condition and to find out precisely what is occurring with the blood, and why the condition has actually come about.

If you have any concerns then you should go and speak to your physician about taking blood tests like this.