





In the words of one of my dear friends, I will soon have extreme survivor street cred to go with my business cred/philanthropic cred/cooking cred/jewelry makin' cred.... I am a 39 year old female entrepreneur living in Athens, GA, and a future breast cancer survivor.
Test | Name | Increased/decreased |
---|---|---|
WBC | White Blood Cell | May be increased with infections, inflammation, cancer, leukemia; decreased with some medications (such as methotrexate), some autoimmune conditions, some severe infections, bone marrow failure, and congenital marrow aplasia (marrow doesn’t develop normally) |
RBC | Red Blood Cell | Decreased with anemia; increased when too many made and with fluid loss due to diarrhea, dehydration, burns |
Hgb | Hemoglobin | Mirrors RBC results |
Hct | Hematocrit | Mirrors RBC results |
MCV | Mean Corpuscular Volume | Increased with B12 and Folate deficiency; decreased with iron deficiency and thalassemia |
MCH | Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin | Mirrors MCV results |
MCHC | Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration | May be decreased when MCV is decreased; increases limited to amount of Hgb that will fit inside a RBC |
RDW | RBC Distribution Width | Increased RDW indicates mixed population of RBCs; immature RBCs tend to be larger |
Platelet | Platelet | Decreased or increased with conditions that affect platelet production; decreased when greater numbers used, as with bleeding; decreased with some inherited disorders (such as Wiskott-Aldrich, Bernard-Soulier), with Systemic lupus erythematosus, pernicious anemia, hypersplenism (spleen takes too many out of circulation), leukemia, and chemotherapy |
MPV | Mean Platelet Volume | Vary with platelet production; younger platelets are larger than older ones |