Iron/complete blood count

[Soph0392]

Hi what do these show please?

Ferritin 18 (15 - 150)

Iron 5.4 (6.0 - 26.0)

Transferrin saturation 16 (12 - 45)

Red blood count 4.45 (3.8 - 5.8)

White cell count 7.11 (4 - 11)

Haemoglobin 115 (115 - 150)

MCV 74.3 (80 - 98)

MCHC 375 (310 - 350)

Haematocrit 0.41 (0.37 - 0.47)

MCH 28.1 (28 - 32)

Platelets 255 (150 - 500)

Neutrophils 0.2 (0.0 - 0.5)

Lymphocytes 1.4 (0.0 - 2.0)

Monocytes 0.5 (0.0 - 0.8)

Eosinophils 0.0 (0.0 - 0.5)

Basophils 0.0 (0.0 - 1.0)

[RobinAnn]

Soph... this shows you need iron. But I'm sure others can give better details.

[HLAB35]

It's pretty clear that you need iron, so, if it were just iron, one would expect to see the following..

Low MCH - True - you have low MCH - not enough haemoglobin.

Low MCV - Also True - Small blood cells indicate low iron

Low MCHC - False - Your MCHC is High - unless I'm horribly wrong if it were a straightforward case of iron deficiency this should have been Low.

This last one worries me - an autoimmune illness can cause this.. which your doctor should look into, or, quite possibly, you have low b12 as well and the iron deficiency is masking it..

Therefore, in my opinion, you could post this result on the PA forum as they're very good on this stuff.

[humanbean in reply to HLAB35]

Low MCHC - False - Your MCHC is High - unless I'm horribly wrong if it were a straightforward case of iron deficiency this should have been Low.

MCHC is low in iron deficiency and high in Vitamin B12 deficiency or folate deficiency. But if someone has iron deficiency plus B12 deficiency and/or folate deficiency, MCHC could go either way.

[HLAB35 in reply to humanbean]

I'd hope that the GP picks up on this and does the extra tests.

[humanbean in reply to HLAB35]

I would hope so too, but based on evidence from this forum, I suspect it isn't guaranteed that there will be any follow up.

[Soph0392 in reply to HLAB35]

B12 is low thanks

[humanbean]

You are anaemic and you need iron. You also need to find out your levels of vitamin B12 and folate, because there is evidence they may be deficient as well.

Have you seen your doctor about these results? Has he/she said anything about them? Have you been prescribed any iron supplements?

[Soph0392 in reply to humanbean]

No not prescribed anything yet

[Hidden]

Are you sure the ranges are correct? Certain White blood cells shouldn't be 0 in range particularly neutrophils? Is this a typo? My son has been investigated for high MCHC and as said earlier this can be due to autoimmune hemolytic anemia but the number doesn't look right as MCHC is a calculated not measured value (hb/hct) so either those two values are incorrect or the MCHC. If so you should push your doctors for further tests in particular a DAT test and the very least a blood film to look at the size and shape of cells.

[Soph0392 in reply to Hidden]

No not a typo

[eeng]

I would say you are low on iron and ferritin, and you should probably be taking an iron supplement. The most commonly suggested is 210mg ferrous fumarate 3 times a day, with vitamin C to aid absorption and prevent constipation (unless the ferrous fumarate already contains ascorbic acid (which is Vitamin C). You can get ferrous fumarate from Amazon if your doctor doesn't want to prescribe it. You can overdo iron supplementation, so take 3 a day for a couple of months, then drop to one a day and retest. You should notice the difference, particularly you should feel less breathless when you do any kind of exercise.