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Old Wed Apr 17, 2019, 12:40 AM
kubu kubu is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: South Bay, Los Angeles
Posts: 7
Thanks for that story Barbara. That's fascinating to hear about the monoclonal IGM antibody theory. Do you know if he had tests showing low iron prior to that, when he was presumably healthy or thought to be healthy?

I got the results from my 2nd bone marrow biopsy at NIH and the differences are:

Jan: 10% cellularity
March: 5% cellularity

Jan: normal iron levels present in marrow (blood tests reported moderate to high iron, too)
March: zero iron in marrow (and low blood levels)

Jan: normal severe aplastic anemia pathology - e.g. few marrow cells and lots of fat cells
March: gelatinous marrow transformation, where the fat cells have converted to gelatinous marrow, sounds like no normal fat cells left in marrow

I have heard that gelatinous marrow transformation can manifest itself early in aplastic anemia, but there isn't a lot of data on it, and no individual case studies I can find. Based on 100+ tests, malnutrition of both macro and micronutrients can be ruled out, likewise for cancer. In short, nothing "wrong" can be found, other than the major hypocellularity.

I have been doing worse since January, so if iron malabsorption is happening it wouldn't surprise me, but it is a new development/side effect that wasn't happening in Jan when the first marrow was done. One theory I have is if the testosterone therapy, which was begun about 6 weeks prior to 2nd marrow biopsy, may have depleted iron stores as it ramped up hemoglobin production. However my red continues to go down and down with each test.
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