Thread: Please help me
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Old Sun Jan 1, 2012, 03:38 PM
Neil Cuadra Neil Cuadra is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
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Abhay,

I don't think that a single CBC (complete blood count) test gives you enough evidence to draw conclusions about the cyclosporine because blood counts can vary up and down from day to day. If your father's HGB and platelets continue to drop over his next few blood tests then the doctors may be concerned, but if his counts go up one week and down the next week that's not unusual.

Going from platelets of 10,000 to 15,000 up to 52,000 to 55,000 is a big improvement. It's still low, since a normal platelet count for a healthy person would be at least 150,000, but it puts him in much less danger and I think the platelet increase is a good sign that the cyclosporine is helping your father.

Your father's white count results show that he had an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) of 1470 on December 20 and an ANC of 1120 on December 27. Both 1120 and 1470 fall into the range called "mild neutropenia", which is slightly below what some treatment centers consider normal, but not a cause for panic. I used the ANC Calculator to compute those numbers.

You didn't say what your father's HGB was before he started cyclosporine. Was it much lower? The difference between 12.4 and 14.9 may reflect only week-to-week fluctuations and not a downward trend. You'll know more from the next few CBCs. The normal HGB range for men is about 14 to 18 but for older men it's usually lower, in the 12 to 15 range. That means that your father's HGB is about 40% to 50% below normal. Perhaps it will improve further if the cyclosporine is given more time to work.

Good luck!
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