Blood Counts

[carolyn]

Hi all,

I'm currently undergoing a re-diagnosis under the AA expert in the UK Prof Marsh, and its going to be another month or so before I find out what she thinks is causing my pancytopenia. I was disappointed yesterday to find out that my counts have dropped (perhaps due to a viral infection i had last week), in August they were: ANC 2.2, Platelets 138, WBC 3.9 and yesterday they were: ANC 1.4, Platelets 109, WBC 2.6. What I am wondering is how low so the counts have to become for treatment to be necessary?

Thanks,

Carolyn

[squirrellypoo]

Hi Carolyn. That's great news that you got to see Prof Marsh - she really, really knows her stuff, and is such a wealth of information.

As far as treatment goes, fixing the AA overall depends on a lot of factors like your bone marrow biopsies, age, and overall health, but the general rule for transfusions here at kings is that they'll transfuse platelets if you're under 20 (they start to get really nervous if they fall below 10) and they'll transfuse red if you fall below 8 (at St Thomas's it's below 9 so it's not a hard and fast rule).

Your counts don't look too bad right now though! Be thankful you don't have to go down the transfusion route just yet...