Wednesday's Word

[DonnaBoll]

platelets

These are very small blood cells (really fragments of cells) that are responsible for clotting of our blood. In PBC, they help measure whether someone has portal hypertension or not. In portal hypertension there is spleen swelling and the blood cells pool including the platelets - leading to reduced platelet count. A platelet count below 150 can often be indicative of portal hypertension and eventually cirrhosis.