Myeloblast in blood question

[KathleenP]

Hello,
I am new here and I am not sure what to make of a recent test.

Long story short, I woke up one morning with a black eye and no injury-my eyelid. I also had dried blood in my ear a few days earlier. So I went to a clinic and asked for a blood test. Everything came back normal range except eosinophils. Clinic said allergies. I went to allergist who said go to hematologist just to make sure.

I go and they do a flow cytometry on my blood. Good news is no cancer but there are myeloblasts in my blood. I am supposed to go back in a couple of months to redo the blood test--flow cytometry and possibly a bone marrow biopsy.

The lab report is quite foreign to me. I did not speak to the dr, and just had his office fax me the labs. He left me a voice mail saying to come back in a few months, etc., it was out of the ordinary but a very small amount.

My questions to the forum: are these tests accurate? is it ever ok to have myeloblasts, even in small amounts, in the blood?

Thank you in advance.

[bailie]

Have you had blood tests previously so you could see if you are trending lower?

[KathleenP]

I had a blood test on 8/15/14 (clinic) and then one 8/27/14 (allergist) and then flow cytometry (onc/hem) on 9/23/14.

I have all three reports here and it's hard to say because they were all done at different labs. I'm not sure what a downward trend is--is there anything specific I should look for?
8/15 8/27

WBC 8.8 8.5
RBC 4.80 4.58
Hgb 15.2 14.1
Hct 45.4 42.2
MCV 95 92.1
MPV 9.4 12.1
Platelet 320 303

High Eosinophils on both tests. So I thought allergies and went to an allergist who told me to go to a hematologist to make sure everything is ok because I had such odd bleeding going on.

Hematologist said I should be fine but ordered a Flow Cytometry test. This is the only finding that gives pause:

Flow Cytometry report:

“Rare CD34 events are noted, suggestive of myeloblasts. Circulating blasts are an atypical findings in the absence of growth factor therapy and correlation with clinical impression…”



Thank you again.

KP

[sbk007]

Not so sure how to read the analysis... The way I read it is that CD34 marker suggests blasts but it doesn't say blasts were actually found.
Then he/she notes that its atypical to find blasts unless you were on some growth factor like a WBC stimulator, so the pathologist is questioning whether or not the CD34 is a false positive given your numbers are pretty strong. Hope it turns out to be a passing virus or temporary aberration. Its good that you will be following up with it in a few months. Downward trend is when over the course of time your blood counts consistently fall. Don't know when your last bloods were taken prior to these. That's what Baille was asking.
All the Best

[KathleenP]

I agree. It's confusing. I had never heard of a myeloblast until last week and now I'm trying to figure out what all this means and why are they in my blood.

That's what I want to know, could it be temporary? I'm not on any type of growth factor therapy. I have obsessively relistened to the voicemail and he says they are there but in very small amounts. I am going to call and ask to speak to him on Monday. i probably shouldn't have looked up myeloblasts on the internet because everything i read says when they are found in the blood it is both rare and not a good sign.

Anyway, thank you for your input. It's much appreciated!

[sbk007]

Great idea to speak with him. Ask if they actually saw blasts in the blood or if the CD34 marker indicated there might be a small number of blasts.
Its my understanding that there should be no blasts in the blood and less than 5 % in the marrow. My GP says the internet is the worst thing that happened to medicine since the Merk manual.. All this info can drive you crazy and cause a lot of stress. Understandably so. Your numbers are very good though. High range of normal which is a great sign and its likely a temporary anomaly or nothing serious.
Good Luck and Take Care

[KathleenP]

I did not have a smear test which I am beginning to think might be a good idea. It's my understanding that in the flow cym test the pathologist does not look at actual cells, its done by laser. So maybe its a false positive or a mistake.

Thank you again and good luck to you as well.

KP,