RDW reading

Has anyone had the RDW number jump way out of the normal range will doing fairly okay with the rest?

[mhos61]

Are you on hydroxyurea? Tends to be a side effect of this drug.

[Hidden in reply to mhos61]

Yes and while before my readings were already above the acceptable range, they really went up after starting taking Hydroxyurea. Odd part is they didn’t mention this as all the attention was on White blood cells and platlets returning to near normal but HCT still climbing to 51

[mhos61 in reply to Hidden]

You need to check it out with your health care team. It may or may not be due to the hydrea, only they will be able to determine this.

As far as your climbing haematocrit levels go, I have ET, so I can’t really advise on that. I hope someone on the forum can help you.

[piggie50 in reply to Hidden]

Hi Chimemphis,

In my opinion, the only sure way to lower hct is venesection. I have PV and although Hydroxy keeps platelets in check for me, I always have a venesection if my hct goes above .45.

[mhos61]

After checking my bloods, can I just clarify, it is the MCV and MCH that hydrea tends to raise, not sure if it affects the RDW. I am on hydrea, and my MCV and MCH are always slightly above range. However, my RDW is unaffected.

[hunter5582]

There are a number of reasons why Red cell Distribution Width can be elevated. It is the difference between the smallest and largest blood cells in your sample. Interpretation of its significance is based on the underlying disease, myelosuppressive medications being used, current levels of iron deficiency, etc. With PV, providing that the HCT is under 45%, it is not necessarily a significant issue. Suggest you ask your doc to explain what the interpretation of the RDW in your case means. In the meantime, here are a couple of resources.

medicinenet.com/rdw_test/ar...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/260...