A falsely high hematocrit would cause which red blood index to be falsely low?

A falsely high hematocrit can lead to a decreased measurement of the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC). The MCHC is calculated by taking the hemoglobin concentration and dividing it by the hematocrit. If the hematocrit is artificially elevated, it may not accurately reflect the true volume of red blood cells in the sample, potentially leading to a misleadingly low MCHC value.

This occurs because the measurement does not account for the actual red blood cell mass compared to the plasma volume. Instead of providing an accurate depiction of the hemoglobin content relative to the red cell volume, a falsely high hematocrit can create a scenario where it appears there is less hemoglobin concentration when in fact, it might be normal or elevated, just not properly represented due to the skewed hematocrit value.

The other indices and counts, such as MCH, MCV, and RBC count, may not demonstrate a direct relationship with an elevated hematocrit in the same manner as MCHC, since they are calculated or influenced by different parameters that do not directly involve division by the hematocrit alone.