I apologize for this very broad question. Short version is that my platelets have been bouncing from 102 to 134 the last couple years (no, the hematologist isn't concerned about those numbers - which he calls hardly thrombocytopenia at all). But at the end of Dec and early Jan, my whites fell too - not bad, from 4.3 to 3.66 (all my reds are fine). So he ran a suite of tests, one of which was the ANA (antibodies) screen, as he was thinking this was an autoimmune issue. Nope, the ANA came back negative. So my first question: How many of you diagnosed with ITP have had a negative or positive ANA? Second question: do many of you also deal with low white cells as part of ITP?
As of today, my hematologist (really an oncologist) is lightly toying with a marrow biopsy to confirm or rule out myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). This would be after one more CBC in April. He's thinking that if all tests so far are negative, perhaps we should check to make sure the two falling cell numbers aren't indicating MDS. I'm ok with his logic, I'm just trying to be clear in my head whether or not ITP is or isn't a diagnosis of elimination and/or idiopathic. Hence my question about the ANA. Thanks for any thoughts.
