My red blood cell count increased from 133 in September 2022 to 151 in March 2023. The haemocrit count went up from 4.43 to 4.96, both outside the normal range. These were both marked with an asterisk on my blood test sheet but that was all.
I went into persistent afib in August 2022.
I am worried that these increases are a direct result of me being in persistent afib and that they could increase further as time goes on. I would welcome anyone else's experience of this and any information that you can give me.
I am due to see a cardiologist this coming Tuesday.
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Swimsyroke
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Worth running past your GP & cardiologist. Having monitored annual bloods for number of years I would say:
Never act on just one reading, take another in 6 months.
'Normal range' is varied by them (not sure who!) from time to time and your normal range is individual to you eg I have had cholesterol around 6 for 30+ years.
I put more emphasis on the trend of readings over 2/3 years.
Not something I would atribute to AF but of course that is most people's "go to" whenever anythng different occurs
It's a bit like when you take your car in for an oil change and soon after the aircon stops working. Of course you blame the garage who did the oil change even though there can be no possible link. !
Of course it must be admitted that AF can be caused by conditins of the blood such as Haemachromatosis.
This happened to me after my last hip replacement op. I had had a blood transfusion but the numbers are supposed to right themselves after a few days. They stayed high for about 3 months before returning to normal. The doc was unconcerned.
I’m a haematology patient (but I’m not a haematologist) so I have a lot of blood tests and it certainly helps to know your numbers. The important thing here is whether this is just a one-off and whether it reverts to normal next time. It happens. The other consideration with blood test abnormalities is that it often isn’t about just one component of the test, it has to be seen in context of the other results.
I’m a bit confused by the units used in your results, in particular the red blood cell count. My local hospital lab gives the RBC measurement as 10^12/L and the reference range as 3.80 – 5.80 so I’m not quite sure about these 133 and 155 numbers. What does your lab give as the reference range because I’m not exactly sure about the units as it doesn’t seem like the way that RBC count is commonly reported in the UK.
Haemoglobin is reported as g/L and the reference range I have is 115.0–155.0, so is it possible that your 151 number is for haemoglobin? Please correct me if I’m wrong about this.
As for your haemocrit, this is also known as packed cell volume (PCV) and it is an indication of how much volume your red cells are taking up in the blood. My local hospital lab uses L/L units and the reference range is 0.37–0.47 L/L. Your lab appears to use a different unit. It is sometimes given as a percentage so for my lab that would be 37-47 %.
I’m guessing here that your results according to your lab are borderline high, and if this is a one off I wouldn’t be overly concerned. If it’s not, I suspect you’ll have further tests or be monitored over time to see if there’s an upward trend.
As for haemochromatosis, I have this condition and I’m currently in active treatment. RBC and haemocrit aren’t in any way indicators of haemochromatosis. You need iron studies to ascertain whether you are overloading iron, and not your routine FBC from the GP. I have a low normal RBC and haemocrit at the lower end of the normal range, so these results are not indicative of haemochromatosis. They don’t rule it in or out, you need completely different tests for that.
I would take the haemocrit/PCV result more seriously because this can be an indicator of how “sticky” your blood is and whether you need to review your anticoagulant therapy. You can raise this at your cardiology appointment and see what they say.
On another note, if you are having your blood tests done after an overnight fast, make sure you drink some water beforehand (don’t overdo it though) as you may well be dehydrated if you’ve gone all night without drinking anything. This can “concentrate” your blood a bit.
The red blood cell count shows 4.96 10*12/L and haemocrit .47L/L. I have never taken any notice of this so don't have a clue what it means except that it has increased since the previous blood test and is now outside the normal parameters.
According to my local NHS lab your RBC would be considered normal and your haemocrit at the upper end of normal. Haemocrit/PCV typically corresponds with your RBC. Your lab’s reference ranges may well be different. I don’t think you need to worry too much just yet but keep an eye on it. A one off result isn’t anything to stress over and even being out of range doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything untoward going on especially if it’s borderline. As for AF, it’s impossible to say. You have to look at the whole picture and what the trends are over time. It might be an idea to discuss any worries about your test results with your GP if that’s a realistic possibility, given how inaccessible everything is right now.
Thanks Autumn Leaves I mentioned it to the cardiologist today and he said at my age (77) he'd be happy to have a decent amount of red blood cells. I will check it again when I have my next blood test.
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