What to do if the platelets are lowered

Modern laboratories help physicians and their patients to monitor their health - today in almost every large enough village there is a medical center that conducts the most common tests on quality laboratory equipment. It is not a secret that most often in these health institutions are performed clinical studies - blood and urine tests.

Change in laboratory indicators - an occasion to consult a doctor

A clinical blood test necessarily includes the determination of the quantity and qualitative composition of the peripheral blood cells - red blood cells, leukocytes and platelets are examined. Whether the parameters are reduced or not in a particular patient, only a qualified doctor can answer, because many diagnostic laboratory complexes used for the behavior of analyzes in a medical center have their own "norm" indicators, so a diagnosis delivered independently is often erroneous.

Attempts to consider one indicator in isolation from the others can cause overdiagnosis of the illnesses, but also a reluctance to react to the fact that the patient's leukocytes, red blood cells or platelets below the norm often leads to the development of neglected cases of pathology of the body. A qualified doctor will be able to suspect the wrong at the time and send his patient to a thorough and comprehensive examination, the purpose of which is to establish the correct diagnosis and the appointment, if necessary, of treatment.

What do the platelet changes indicate in the clinical blood test?

By tradition, most often the attention of the doctor and the patient is attracted by red blood cells (erythrocytes) and white blood cells - leukocytes. Even if platelets are lowered in the clinical analysis of blood, the symptoms of this condition usually appear only when such a decrease reaches significant values. In this case, the patient may have spontaneous hemorrhages or "bruises" with minimal trauma, bleeding, but more often such complaints become a manifestation of the functional inferiority of these elements of peripheral blood.

Even significantly reduced platelets (while maintaining their functional abilities) can not be clinically manifested. In modern clinical medicine, the "norm" indicators have changed significantly, and those data that were considered pathology a few years ago now fit into the age standards. Nevertheless, no need to pay attention to the decrease in the number of platelets should not be, because the number of these blood elements in the vast majority of cases indicates a pathology of the bone marrow or diseases of the spleen. It is in these organs that reproduction, maturation and differentiation occur, as well as the utilization of platelets of the human body.

If the platelets are reduced. Do I need to do something?

If a routine clinical blood test reveals that the platelets are lowered, the patient is recommended, if possible, to repeat the test in another laboratory. In case of recurrence of thrombocytopenia episodes, a qualified hematologist is required to consult a program for further examination of the patient. You should not try to restore the number of platelets in peripheral blood by yourself - modern hematology does not have clinically valid methods of increasing these form elements with diet, vitamins or medications.

In the same cases, when platelets are reduced to critical levels, a transfusion of thromboconcentrate obtained from donor blood is necessary, but only a physician should decide on such therapy. Simultaneously, a survey is conducted, the purpose of which is to reveal the true cause of such a condition.