[Lisa V]

Hispit, the main thing you want to know about your BMB results is a) what is your marrow cellularity, and b) do you have any dysplasia or chromosomal mutations?

A cellularity of less than 25% could indicate Severe Aplastic Anemia, but only if you also have at least two of the following: an ANC of less than .5, a platelet count of less than 20, a reticulocyte count of less than 20. Did they do a retic count? Those are the precursers of red cells, and what is going on with them may help solve the puzzle. From your other post, your platelet count is excellent, and your overall white count sounds good too, so I can't imagine your ANC being anywhere near that low. That would seem like enough to rule out AA to me, but it would be useful to know what your cellularity is. There is another category known as Moderate AA, which is basically defined as having lower than normal counts, but not low enough to qualify as SAA. Maybe this is what your doctor is thinking of, but I still don't think that having only low RBCs would point to that. On the other hand, if your cellularity is low, that may be why they're leaning in that direction. These are all questions to ask.

If there are signs of dysplasia (deformed cells) or chromosomal mutations, that would be more typical of MDS, but it's often not a simple call. There's a lot of grey area and room for interpretation in some of the things they look at. My gut feeling is that you probably have neither AA nor MDS, but it would help a lot if your doctor would explain your test results to you and why he or she has come to the conclusions they have.