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Posted 10/17/2015 3:07 PM (GMT 0)
Does anyone else here have high or low MPV readings from CBC blood draw?
there seems to be a correlation between high MPV, UC flares and blood clots. Wondering if it's just specific to me or many other with UC.

Post Edited (beatUC) : 10/20/2015 7:55:13 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 10/17/2015 4:45 PM (GMT 0)
hey beat, i just went back two years in my blood work to see my mean platelet volume. it has been in the normal range the whole time- granted, i've been doing really well since nov/dec 2013 with no flares and i can't look further back than two years. not sure if the numbers are different when i was in bad shape.
Posted 10/18/2015 2:25 PM (GMT 0)
glad you're doing so well! I think there is a clue in those high MPV readings at least for me and possibly all of us. Most of you are very lucky you don't get blood clots while flaring, they are devastating and I fear they may do me in one of these times.
Posted 10/18/2015 5:29 PM (GMT 0)
BeatUC - why do you not take blood thinners? After my second DVT and PE I was given no option ... Thinners for life. At least that minimises risk albeit there is the bleeding challenge to deal with! If it's not one thing it's another!!!
Posted 10/18/2015 5:54 PM (GMT 0)
I get clots in my stool sometimes. When I was flaring badly it was several clots with each Bm 20+ times a day. Now I go 0-4 and I don't always have clots. If I do it's only 1 or2
Posted 10/18/2015 6:04 PM (GMT 0)
Dikid - the term clots refers to thrombosis rather than congealed blood in stools. These are different things completely ... The former can be fatal and are always an emergency when they arise. Just incase you are confusing two very different things.
Posted 10/18/2015 6:06 PM (GMT 0)
Yes I am confusing the two.
That's awkward. The doc called it clots but I don't think it was thrombosis.
I was on lovenox to help prevent thrombosis tho.
Thanks for correcting me
Posted 10/18/2015 7:47 PM (GMT 0)
You cannot take blood thinners for DVT while flaring, you will bleed to death very quickly.
Posted 10/18/2015 8:28 PM (GMT 0)
Just to clarify, a thrombosis is a clot within a blood vessel. DVT is in a deep blood vessel, and is more dangerous. The main threat of thromboses is that one or more can break loose from the vessel it's in and travel to the lungs, becoming a pulmonary embolism. This is a clot in a vessel going to the lungs, and can be quickly fatal if not treated.

If a DVT appears when you are flaring, you most likely be put on a blood thinner at least for a time. A pulmonary embolism will kill you a lot faster than bleeding from UC ulcers. As my cardiologist says, breathing trumps diarrhea.
Posted 10/18/2015 8:44 PM (GMT 0)
Not true, I've had 2 vascular doctors tell me because of the severe bleeding I have during a flare, they cannot put me on blood thinners due to the very obvious risk of more bleeding. My primary doctor and my GI concur.

Post Edited (beatUC) : 10/18/2015 3:51:27 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 10/18/2015 9:30 PM (GMT 0)
I know my platelets are high right now and have been before, but I don't know if that's the same thing as MPV. Okay, I just dug out a recent-ish copy of my hospital's pathology report, and nah it's different. The normal range for Platelets is 150-450. These are my last three results:

Oct '14 - 409
May '15 - 471 (just over a week before surgery!)
Oct'15 - 781

My MPV is in the middle of the normal range, well at least it was back in May this year - I don't know about right now, since my IBD nurse didn't send me a copy of my blood test results this time :-(

Do you know what your actual platelet count is?
Posted 10/19/2015 6:12 AM (GMT 0)
BeatUc. Sorry you are totally incorrect. You are more likely to die from a PE than flare bleeding with thinners. Flare bleeding is controllable a PE is not (the majority - though not all eg Rivaroxaban - of thinners are reversible on the spot if need be). Personally I think you have opted for the wrong risk - but each to his own. I would advise you get other advice. The range of thinners means that you would not 'bleed to death'. Yes it brings issues, I've had two major bleeds and I have needed transfusions... But it's a game of risks. Judy 2 is spot on. I'm Gobsmacked any medical professional would say different. Once you have a history of clots the norm is permanent thinners. How many times have you had DVTs/PEs? That is also a factor.

Everyone with IBD should be made more aware of the risk of both and the symptons. I'm always irritated how little priority docs seem to give this until it happens. Even these days These are potentially fatal - IBD is not.

Good luck.

Post Edited (Duffle) : 10/19/2015 12:41:36 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 10/19/2015 11:44 AM (GMT 0)
Well, beatUC hasn't got back to me yet, but I just wanted to add that my GI uses platelets as one of the markers for IBD inflammation. If you google IBD and platelets, arcane studies come up showing a link between raised platelets and IBD activity. It's not new knowledge: it's been known since at least the 1960s. That doesn't, of course, stop most GIs from apparently not knowing about it, as far as my admittedly limited experience can tell.

Iron deficiency is also associated with elevated platelets, by the way, which may be a factor in some people with IBD. But I don't have iron deficiency right now, and my platelets are still high. And as that 1960s study noted: Other factors capable of inducing thrombocytosis, such as anemia, iron deficiency, and active gastrointestinal bleeding, were not uniformly present.
Posted 10/19/2015 1:17 PM (GMT 0)
NCOT, no I'm not sure what my platelet count is.

MPV is an indicator of active UC:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21526498

Post Edited (beatUC) : 10/19/2015 8:12:30 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 10/19/2015 1:55 PM (GMT 0)
From that link...

There was a decrease of MPV in patients with ulcerative colitis ... Decreased MPV value reflects activation and the role blood platelets play in the inflammatory process of the mucous membrane of the colon.
Posted 10/20/2015 1:56 PM (GMT 0)
NCOT, my platelet count is within normal range but the MPV is low, white count high, lymphocytes low,hemoglobin WAY low what does it all mean?
Posted 10/20/2015 7:45 PM (GMT 0)

beatUC said...
Does anyone else here have high or low MPV readings from CBC blood draw?
there seems to be a correlation between high MPV, UC flares and blood clots. Wondering if it's just specific to me or many other with UC.

Yes normally mine are way out of range this has been so for years.

For me platelet count > 700 means flare coming, bad flare. Usually 1/2 of the metrics our 'out of range'.

However I have done self-pay labs the last 3 months and they are the best in 10 years. The ones I picked up yesterday were my personal best.
Nothing flagged on CBC.
Only Alkalaline Phosphate flagged low on CMP
Platelet a nice low 250
RBC increasing for the first time ever.
Posted 10/20/2015 8:18 PM (GMT 0)

beatUC said...
NCOT, my platelet count is within normal range but the MPV is low, white count high, lymphocytes low,hemoglobin WAY low what does it all mean?

It's weird that your platelets are normal, since in the study that you linked to it appears that low MPV is associated with high platelets in active IBD.

It was shown that the complete blood platelet
count was significantly increased in patients with active
CU and CD compared to patients with inactive
CU and CD or healthy subjects. In the case of MPV,
parallel dependencies were demonstrated. MPV was
significantly reduced in active inflammatory bowel
diseases and correlated negatively with leucocytosis,
ESR, concentration of CRP, markers of activation of
blood platelets, such as plasma b-TG and PF4. The
increase in the concentration of plasma b-TG and PF4
indicate platelets activation and the release of active
biological substances, which are stored in the platelet’s
granules. They initiate and support the inflammatory
process in the colon. The increase in the complete
blood platelet count and the reduction in MPV
reflected this process

Dunno about the high WBC and low lymphocytes either. In short this is beyond my internet-gleaned knowledge. I'd ask your GI about it and hope he has a clue.

In the meantime, I'd really like to what my last MPV number was, but I feel like I can't ask my IBD nurse to send me a full printout of my blood test results. Not when I've just asked her if I can send my blood all the way over to New Zealand to get tested for MAP - think I need to give her time to get over that first.

Edit: Also, I just checked my last two MPV results and it's more like low normal than mid-range.
Posted 10/20/2015 11:59 PM (GMT 0)

beatUC said...
NCOT, my platelet count is within normal range but the MPV is low, white count high, lymphocytes low,hemoglobin WAY low what does it all mean?

It means your not totally out of a flare. I pulled blood labs every weekend for 6 weeks to learn if Asacol or Qing Dai was helping. They helped.

Those things your asking about were all on my list to watch and track with graphs in Excel.

They were that way for a long long time for me, I could improve them but they still got flagged until this year when I added MSM, ashwaghanda, magnesium-taurate ( its tolerable no side effects ), sulfasalazine and dumped whey protein for REWARD pea protein.

You might try those but sulfasalazine can have side effects after a while so once your good switch off until needed again.
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