24 week PCR

[hepcD]

Hello Everyone out there. I am in week 25 of 48. I just received
my 24 week PCR. It came back negative. I have been UND since week 4 of treatment. My HGB is 11.9 but my wbc is 2.4 and my rbc is 3.68  My AST is 34 and alt is 68 . My question is should i be concerned about low wbc and rbc

[sindog]

I was told that if wbc under 2.0 then you need neupogen, which I took. I''m not sure what the threshold for rbc was, but mine was always ok and ran about 3.50 during tx and was ok. UND is always very good. congrats.

[sindog]

Found an old blood test. The threshold I was given for red blood was hemoglobin under 10.0 and hematocrit under 30.0.

[esleighton]

The Interferon causes WBC counts to drop
The Ribavirin causes RBC drop.

Watch the "total neutrophils", "Absolute Neutrophil Count", or ANC. The WBC count is used to calculate this. Your neutrophils are what you fight bacterial infection and it can be life threatening. I was referred by my Hepatologist to a Hematologist-Oncologist to this, and was prescribed Neupogen to boost the WBC, and the Neutrophils follow.
My baseline numbers (previous to treatment)were WBC 7.7 ANC 3300.
They bottomed out at week 8, WBC 2.5 (not real bad) ANC 348 (extreme neutropenia). I was very stressed during that time, staying away from crowds, children, salad bars, etc. It is very important to watch for fever above 101.5 (off the the hospital for intravenous antibiotics or something). The hemotologist is OK with me maintaining my neutrophils above 500. I take a shot about every 10 days. Anything below 1500 is considered neutropenia.

This covers WBC and ANC stuff good I think.

Eric

[FlGuy]

I had a cbc today, results are similar to your. As to the wbc, the component of concern is absolute neutophils count (ANC) which may be reported speparately on your report. Although my wbc was 2.8, ancs were at 1500 (with 500 being the point of intervention). As reference tx started 11 week and anc's about 9000. A drop is not alarming but need to monitor the anc component, not just wbc. As for hgb, you maybe getting tired but not gassed like people who have less than 10 or so or a quick big drop.  Best news is those repeating UND's -must be happy about that!