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Haematocrit
Sometimes, understanding blood simply requires giving it a new spin. Haematocrit measures the proportion of blood volume occupied by erythrocytes, commonly determined by centrifugation. This separates blood into three layers: erythrocytes at the bottom, a thin buffy coat of leukocytes and platelets, and plasma at the top. The packed erythrocyte volume is then expressed as a fraction or percentage of the total blood volume. Sometimes, getting to the bottom of things just takes a good spin.
