What to do if the platelets are lowered

Modern laboratories help doctors and theirpatients to monitor the state of health - today almost every large enough village has a medical center that conducts the most common tests on quality laboratory equipment. It's no 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 includesself determination of the quantity and qualitative composition of the formed elements of the peripheral blood - the erythrocytes, leukocytes and platelets are examined. Whether or not the indices for a particular patient are reduced or not, only a qualified doctor can respond, because many diagnostic laboratory complexes used for the behavior of analyzes in a particular medical center have their own "norm" indicators, hence the diagnosis delivered independently is often erroneous.

Attempts to consider one indicator in isolation fromothers may cause overdiagnosis of the disease, but also a reluctance to respond 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 in time something wrong 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 patientattract red blood cells (erythrocytes) and white blood cells - leukocytes. Even if in a clinical blood test the platelets are lowered, the symptoms of this condition usually appear only when such a decrease reaches significant values. In this case, the patient may experience 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 (whenpreservation of their functional abilities) can not be clinically manifested. In modern clinical medicine, the "norm" indicators have changed significantly, and those data that were considered pathologies a few years ago now fit into the age standards. Nevertheless, no need to pay attention to a 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 the routinethe clinical blood test reveals that the platelets are lowered, the patient is recommended, if possible, to repeat the test in another laboratory. If you repeat the episodes of thrombocytopenia, a consultation of a qualified hematologist is required, which will be able to outline a program for further examination of the patient. You do not need to try to restore the number of platelets in the peripheral blood yourself - modern hematology does not have clinically valid methods of increasing these form elements with diet, vitamins or medications.

In the same cases, when the platelets are reduced tocritical indicators, it is necessary to transfuse thromboconcentrate obtained from donor blood, but the decision on this therapy should only be taken by a doctor. Simultaneously, a survey is conducted, the purpose of which is to reveal the true cause of such a condition.