# Puzzling example unit for quantitative acanthocytes and schizocytes

**URL:** <https://forum.loinc.org/t/puzzling-example-unit-for-quantitative-acanthocytes-and-schizocytes/1129>\
**Category:** hematologycoagulation\
**Created:** [October 22, 2021, 7:44am UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/puzzling-example-unit-for-quantitative-acanthocytes-and-schizocytes/1129 "2021-10-22T07:44:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fmacary](https://forum.loinc.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/7ab992/32.png) [@fmacary](https://forum.loinc.org/u/fmacary)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 7:44am UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/puzzling-example-unit-for-quantitative-acanthocytes-and-schizocytes/1129/1 "2021-10-22T07:44:49Z")

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Sylvie Cormont and I think that the example units “%” for 51639-3 (Acanthocytes/1000 erythrocytes in Blood) and 53630-2 (Schistocythes/1000 erythrocytes in Blood) are wrong

Since these cells are counted per 1000 red cells (not per 100 red cells), shouldn’t the example UCUM unit be “/10^3” or “ppth” instead of “%”?

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**Author:** ![dbakkeren](https://forum.loinc.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@dbakkeren](https://forum.loinc.org/u/dbakkeren)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 5:29am UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/puzzling-example-unit-for-quantitative-acanthocytes-and-schizocytes/1129/2 "2021-10-25T05:29:16Z")

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You are right that the example unit “%” is not correct. Because UCUM makes use of 7 bit ASCII the promille sign (“‰”) is not available. Not all systems can represent this unit.

However , the correct UCUM notation you suggest is not “/10^3” but “/10\*3”. You can check this using the UCUM checker @ [https://ucum.nlm.nih.gov/ucum-lhc/demo.html](https://ucum.nlm.nih.gov/ucum-lhc/demo.html)  
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**Author:** ![system](https://forum.loinc.org/uploads/default/original/1X/dbab97ce9b2987d788a376e254fcaae249f3b672.png) [@system](https://forum.loinc.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 3:36pm UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/puzzling-example-unit-for-quantitative-acanthocytes-and-schizocytes/1129/3 "2023-06-23T15:36:49Z")

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