Is a platlette count accurate?

Hi there again, it's been a while since I've been on here. Our youngest was dx in April with ITP. Nearly six months on he's been admitted four times for ivig and pred treatment. he refuses to take anything orally so always has to be done through the iv. We were about to go in today for his fifth treatment as his count had dropped from 136 to 35, then 17 five days ago. We went in for a count and it has gone up to 25! The first result EVER to have risen - we were estatic! So luckily he's been given a reprieve until we go back next week. Thing is that I read somewhere on this forum a while back that the count varies on either side of a result of like 5K. Is this true? If he gets a result of 10K, is it really a bit higher or lower? What about when his count was 3 when he was first dx - if it varies, how could it be lower than 0? Anyone know how accurate it is?I always thought it was what it was.

Hi

I have also heard that platelet counts are only accurate to +/- 5000, and a count of 10K or less has a greater chance of inaccuracy. However, on the positive side, I remember hearing my son's haematologist say that platelet counts for people with ITP are nearly always understated. Its got something to do with the machine that does the counts mistakenly counting some platelets as other types of cells due to their size - as the platelets that ITP patients have are nearly always newer and therefore bigger than the machine would expect. He said that if they do a manual count rather than a machine count, the count is nearly always higher.

Ali

Is that right? Wow, I didn't know any of that. Good to know. Our hospital does manual counts so I guess I should keep in mind that Ethan's count may be lower than what it really is. Thank you Ali

I believe what Ali was saying is that a manual count is more accurate than the machine. So if your hospital always does a manual count then it's closer to the "real" number than what the machine does. I've seen several times on my reports that "a manual count was done and matches" So I dunno! There is no way to go into negative numbers, so when I was at 1, I gotta believe it was right. I think maybe I spend to much time thinking of the numbers. Low is low, acceptable is acceptable. I dunno.

Thanks server for clarifying that - yes, I was a bit mixed up. I too sometimes think I think too much about numbers and his symptoms and get stressed. This time around though at 17 he had only a few little bruises and you'd have to look real hard for dots where as once when he was at 45 he looked like an abused child because of the brusies and had bright red dots everywhere with big blue veins all over his temples and forehead. It's made the longr her has it it's made us realise we can't go by symptoms. Frustrating.

Platelet counts are "a sample of a sample", so they can never be considered to be absolutely accurate. Think about it like chicken and rice soup. If you have a bowl of soup, you will not have exactly the same number of grains of rice in each spoonful.

I have had different platelet counts from the same blood sample. In one case, my first reading came out at 3K and the lab nurse couldn't believe it, so she immediately ran it through again and it was 6K.

In another case, right after I had WinRho, I had a count of 435K, but the WBC didn't print for some reason so they re-ran the sample and the second one came out at 427K.

Different counts from the same sample? Very interesting tamar - plus a good analagy. It seems it is always best to keep in mind that there could always be some discrepancy.

You have to just trust what number you get. It's as good as it gets. Don't stress out about a drop from 25 to 19, nearly the same thing. Of course, if you choose 20 as the number to treat, you have to notice, but know that they are so very close it's not much different. Try to think of the numbers on a scale - like, 0-10, very low, 10-20, low, 20-30, tolerable, 30-50, livable, 50 and up, safe.

Thanks Sandy - yes, perhaps keeping it in tens is better. We see a different haemo each time as it's a clinic. One doesn't like him under 20, another is okay with that but not under 10 etc. I think the fact that he went from 17 to 25 saved another admission for now though he saw the head of department on Friday this time around. I'm really looking forward to what his count is this Friday as I've still been giving him the homepathy remedies. Wonder if it was a coincidence. We really don't want him going back in again - neither does he. Just keep it above 20...! We were so excited by the fact that it actually went up for the first time in nearly 6 months, each digit was huge!

Sandi,

What is happening to the posts? I replied to this thread last night, but it seems to have disappeared! It's not the first time it's happened, either. There was also at least one other post on this thread, that has disappeared. It was by Freckles. What happened to these? And, just to add,my post was not controversial at all--I was simply saying that I liked the advice that you, Tamar and Freckles had given, thinking it would be useful to go into the FAQ section.

I saw your post, April. I agreed with it and thought it was a a very nice post. I'm kind of pro vaccine and regular medicine so I would be on the other side of the debate from you, but I don't think your posts have ever been disrespectful.

I've read other posts that seem to be referring to posts that I seem not to have read, but when I look for the other posts, I can't find them. It's not like there are a ton of posts on these boards either.

Lily

I noticed some missing posts too. Even a whole thread! It was accidentally posted in the pregnancy board and now is gone! I dunno!

April, I don't know. I did not delete any posts.

I saw the one in this thread too, where april mentioned Tamar's and a couple of other posts, and now I don't see it. Weird.
Erica

See the explanation in the Announcement Thread.