I realized that, after three years of writing this blog, I still haven't gone over the standard Complete Blood Count (CBC) test that some of us get on a weekly basis. Mea Culpa...I should have done this long ago. So here goes:
There are two versions of the CBC test (or possibly more, but I know of two). They are the regular CBC and the CBC w/ Auto Differential. I'll go through the simple CBC in this post. In the next post I will add the extra bits for the CBC w/ Auto Differential. Please know that CBCs may not all be reported identically, so the names/abbreviations are more important than the order.
CBC part 1: tests for things other than your red blood cells:
- Platelet: Platelets are the cells in your blood that stop you from continuing to bleed if you cut or bruise yourself. When there is an injury, the platelets rush to the site and try to heal the wound. If you have too few platelets then you are very likely to bruise easily, and cuts won't heal very fast. The normal range is 150-400K. Anything below 10K will normally result in hospitalization. 10-30k is considered dangerous, too. The cut-off range varies from doctor to doctor, but I've found that rheumatologists start worrying when you get to the 30-50K range.
- MPV: "Mean Platelet Volume." This shows how big the platelets in your blood are. If you have, for example, a healthy MPV but a low Platelet count, then it i may be that you are making healthy platelets, but then the immune system is killing them.
- WBC: This is your White Blood Cell (WBC) Count. White blood cells are the cells in your blood that protect you from infections (yay!), but can attack your body when you have an autoimmune disease (double boo!)
|A Red Blood Cell.|
(They don't really have eyes!)
CBC part 2 : Tests that measure something about your Red Blood Cells (RBCs).
- RBC: Red Blood Cell [count]; in this case it means the number of Red Blood Cells (RBCs) that are in your blood. RBCs are the cells in the body that absorb oxygen from the air in the lungs, then distribute it to the body. A low RBC count results in anemia. They are the reason that blood that comes into contact with the air is red. The main protein responsible for a RBC's work is...
- Hemoglobin/Haemoglobin: This is a protein that binds to Iron (which we get from our diet or from supplements) and uses it to grab oxygen from the air. If your count is below the average range then you will also be considered anemic, and may have to take Iron supplements.
- Hematocrit/Haemotocrit: Hem/Haem (depends which side of the pond you're on) means "blood". Crit means "count." So the word means "blood count"...very helpful, right? Yeah. What hematocrit means in a CBC is the % of your blood that is made up out of RBCs. Your blood should have many different kinds of cells, so if the Hematocrit is below 36% or above 46% then something may be wrong; you might not be making enough RBCs, you might be making too many, or you might be making the right amount, only to have some *$%@ autoimmune disease cause your immune system to kill the cells.
- MCV: Technically this is the "Mean corpuscular volume." What this really mean? Well, it can tell you a lot about the size of the Red Blood Cells in your blood. This, in addition to the hematocrit, can tell the doctor a lot about your blood production, and can alert them to any serious problems (like, for example, a whole bunch of teeny tiny immature RBC's) that might be going on with the RBCs themselves. Basically it can tell your doctor that your cells are healthy or unhealthy.
- MCH: This stands for "mean corpuscular hemoglobin." This is like the MCV, except that it counts the weight of the hemoglobin in the blood. The normal weight is around 26.0-34.0 picograms.
- MCHC: "Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration." This is the same as the above test, except that it's measuring the concentration of hemoglobin within cells instead of the total weight in the blood. Once again, these tests are supposed to alert a physician to a problem with the ratio of hemoglobin either in the blood (MCH) or within RBCs themselves (MCHC). This count can indicate a number of disorders, including sickle cell disease.
- RDW: "Red Cell Distribution width." This tells the doctor how much variation there is in the size of your red blood cells. Normally this variation is 11.5-14.5%. This means that the cells are pretty much the same size. Too much variation might show a problem with your bone marrow.
- nRBC: Nucleated Red Blood Cells. This one is kind of technical, but basically RBCs in the blood don't have something called a nucleous. If your RBCs do have nuclei, then you have, essentially, baby RBCs floating around in your blood. This points to a disease in the bone marrow, where all blood cells are made.
|White Blood Cells:|
Both a blessing and a *$%@
nuisance for people with autoimmune diseases!!
Sources: Wikipedia, WebMD, Johns Hopkins, others.
My standard disclaimer applies: my blog should never be considered medical advice, or used as a substitute for talking to your physician. (Sorry, folks, my brother is a lawyer, so I always have to throw that bit in). Also, I have brain fog, and I do make mistakes. Please tell me if you catch any!!!!