B12?

[gillyjohnny]

Hi

I haven't been feeling myself for about 3 months, feeling very moody, emotional, out of breath, bloated stomach and have put a stone in weight on, electric shock sensations in my head, I have had blood tests which showed MCV as 98.3 and MCH as 32.6, does anyone know if these are classed as high. I am being tested for B12 next week and am unsure what to do if these come back as okay. Just really want to feel like my usual self again

Thanks

I

[fbirder]

Assuming that the MCV is fL and the MCH is pg then the MCV is a bit high (range 80 to 96) and the MCH (range 27 to 89) is a bit low.

The two in combination are indicators of macrocytic anaemia (red blood cells are too big and don't contain enough haemaglobin). Two possible causes of this are low B12 and/or low folate (B9) - so ask for both to be tested.

When the results arrive let us know what they are (include the units and the normal ranges as different tests have different ranges). Often doctors will tell you everything is normal when they meant to say "everything is just inside the range that is normal for 95% of the population - this time we tested, although the test can be wrong by up to 20%".

[gillyjohnny in reply to fbirder]

Thanks for the information and I will post results when I get them

[gillyjohnny in reply to fbirder]

On my blood test results it says the range is 27-32 is this wrong or do different places have different ranges cheers

[fbirder in reply to gillyjohnny]

That would be Quite a difference in the upper end. Most likely, I read it wrong.

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to fbirder]

normal range for MCH is 27-33 pg/cell

emedicine.medscape.com/arti...

it may vary depending on the equipment used so 27-32 looks like the correct range.