Iron deficiency anemia results is a microcytic hypochromic anemia (red cells are small and paler than normal). The mean corpuscular volume, which is a measurement of the average size of a patient’s red blood cell, will be low in iron deficiency anemia. Anemia is characterized by a reduction in the number of red blood cells, not an erythrocytosis. In anemic patients, hemoglobin is lower than normal, not elevated. Hyperbilirubinemia would only be present if the anemia was a result of an intravascular hemolytic process, which does not characterize iron deficiency anemia.