Prevalence of anemia in India is a well known fact. The National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) data suggests that anemia is widely prevalent among all age groups and is particularly high among the most vulnerable -nearly 58 per cent among pregnant women, 50 per cent among nonpregnant and non-lactating women, 56 per cent among adolescent girls (15-19 years), 30 per cent among adolescent boys and around 80 per cent among children under 3 years of age. Major cause of which is iron deficiency

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... ia followed closely by thalassemia syndrome with the latter having a prevalence of 10.4%. Present study was conducted to find out whether a small parameter called RDW(Red Cell Distribution Width) could be helpful in differentiating between two major causes of anemia i.e. Iron deficiency anemia & thalassemias. This study was conducted on 660 patients having anemia. Out of 660 patients, 287 patients had microcytic hypochromic anemia. 101 patients could not be classified into any of the above. In remaining 186 cases, RDW as a test showed a sensitivity of 82.27% in classifying microcytic hypochromic anemia as iron deficiency anemia. Thus, by this study we tried to showcase the utility of RDW as a simple, economical and a screening tool in evaluation of microcytic hypochromic anemia.