Can anyone talk to me about Polycythemia vera?

Question

I have been having symptoms like: shortness of breath, headaches, heaviness in the body, and fatigue. I have been recently told by the family docter that my red cell count was abnormally high.

Answer 1

Polycythemia vera is a rare, chronic disorder where the bone marrow overproduces blood cells. It increases all blood cells: red, white and platelets. The cause is unknown.

Symptoms include headaches, weakness, dizziness, and/or a ringing in the ears. Some people also have itching. The spleen and liver can be enlarged. People can also have high blood pressure and develop blood clots.

Answer 2

Hello

Polycythemia vera is a clonal stem cell disorder characterized by excessive erythrocyte production. Its etiology is not fully established, but hypersensitivity to interleukin-3 may play a role in the sustained erythrocytosis observed in this disease.
Polycythemia vera usually occurs within the age range of 20-80, with 60 being the mean age of onset. The disease is slightly more common in males than in females. Clinical features include headaches, weakness, weight loss, and pruritus (itching without visible eruption on the skin). 10-15 % of patients may also present with gout due to hyperuricemia. Hemorrhage, thrombosis and hyperviscosity may be evident at any time. Splenomegaly, as a result of vascular congestion, is seen in 75% of patients at the time of presentation. Hepatomegaly is observed in about 30% of cases.

A diagnosis of polycythemia vera is made when a patent fulfills all three of the major criteria, or any two major and any two minor criteria.


Major Criteria
total RBC vol men > 36 mg/kg; women >32 mg/kg
arterial 02 saturation > 92%
Splenomegaly
Minor Criteria
Platelet count > 400 x 10^9/L
Leukocytosis > 12 x 10^9/L
LAP > 100 (no infection)
Serum B12 > 900 pg/ml or UB12 BC> 2200 pg/ml
Polycythemia vera is considered one of the chronic myeloproliferative disorders. Other diseases in this category include: agnogenic myeloid metaplasia, essential thrombocythemia, and chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Peripheral blood findings for polycythemia vera include:

Increased hemoglobin & hematocrit
Normal red blood cell morphology, unless iron deficient or spent phase
Normoblasts may be present
Mild to moderate leukocytosis
Mild neutrophilia and/or basophilia
Thrombocytosis
Bone marrow findings for Polycythemia vera include

Moderate to marked hypercellularity
trilineage hyperplasia
megakaryocytes increased; hyperlobulated
dilated sinusoids with intravascular hematopoiesis
decreased or absent iron stores
increased reticulin (only in a minority of patients)

Hope this helps... L

Answer 3

Google for specifics and tons of info. Polycytemia is a condition in which your body has created an excess of red blood cells. The problem is not only the situation caused by the increased reb blood cells but in finding out "why did your body do this?". Most of the time it is in response to oxygen depletion in one form or another (high altitude, respiratory illness). There are tons of other causes. If you dont get a solid answer and aggressive treatment from this doc..go somewhere else. This is not something to play with...good luck.

Answer 4

umm not 100% sure but it's kinda related to increase in number of different blood components like red blodd cell, white blood cells etc..

Answer 5

well im not sure of all the symptoms but My aunt eventually died of this so get treatment and take care of yourself and do whatever your doc tells you to. Your life and You are very important. Bless you.