American Society of Hematology (ASH) ITE Practice Test 2026 – The All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

A key clue about red blood cell membrane disorders, such as hereditary spherocytosis, is the appearance of spherocytes on the blood film. These cells have lost membrane surface area but retain most of their hemoglobin, so the hemoglobin concentration inside each cell becomes higher. That leads to an increased mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC). In contrast, conditions that cause hypochromia (like iron deficiency) or electrolyte abnormalities are not typical features of membrane skeleton defects, so they wouldn’t explain an increased MCHC.