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Old Wed Oct 11, 2017, 10:02 AM
Hopeful Hopeful is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: California, USA
Posts: 766
Hi zent,

I think it is great that your father is continuing to live a healthy and active lifestyle!

Quote:
Originally Posted by zent1000 View Post

His RBC of 4.0 and Hemoglobin of 13.4 are the lowest values in his 4 years of CBC testing. His Hematologist has always told me that even if my father has elevated MCV (97-103) and low RBC (4.25-4.5), he will not order a bone marrow test if my father's Hemoglobin is normal (equal or more than 14). My father's Vitamin B12 and Folic acid were normal when measured in July as mentioned in my previous post #15). His Iron (and Ferritin) were never measured.

Questions:
1) All the reasons for his low Hemoglobin seem to be pointing towards MDS at this time. Your comments?
You can't make an MDS diagnosis without a BMB.

Even if they did a BMB, and he was diagnosed with MDS, if he has stable counts and no other symptoms, the doctors would probably just watch and wait. That's probably why they don't see the need to do a BMB at the point.

Quote:
Originally Posted by zent1000 View Post
2) His primary care physician recommended my father ask for a peripheral blood smear with his Hematologist before a bone marrow test is used to confirm MDS. Your comments?
This sounds like a good idea. They could look for abnormal shapes in his cells or for the presence of blasts. Depending on what they saw (or didn't see) they could determine whether more testing was needed.

Hope his appointment went well!
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55 yo female, dx 9/08, AA/hypo-MDS, subclinical PNH, ATG/CsA 12/08, partial response. small trisomy 6 clone, low-dose cyclosporine dependent
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