Cirrhosis and elevated reticulocytes

[Cat1218]

Hi, has anyone with Cirrhosis had a blood test showing a high reticulocyte count ?

[Kristian]

Can't remember to be honest, but it can be associated with Anemia which seems quite common for folks with cirrhosis. I know it something I had for a long time.There's a couple of reason for that apparently, 1) the liver actually has an important role to play in the production of red blood cells, so if its damaged that can obviously be impacted. 2) if portal hypertension is present, the spleen can be enlarged which means more blood cells are destroyed than normal too.

Of course there can be other causes, but in folks with liver disease these are the more obvious ones.

[Cat1218 in reply to Kristian]

Thank you for your reply, I do also have low red cell count.

[Kristian in reply to Cat1218]

That makes sense.

[vinylcollector]

Folic Acid needs to be checked B9 and B12. This can cause nasty problems due to large poorly formed red blood cells not transporting oxygen.