How to Monitor Blood Platelets

Blood platelets (also known as thrombocytes) are fragments of bone marrow cells that circulate in the blood. These cells are important to the human body as they aid in stopping bleeding. Platelets form a clot at the site of an injury of the skin, trapping blood from exiting the body and preventing further blood loss. Certain medical conditions or treatments cause the body to lose, or not develop platelets. Certain treatments like chemotherapy, destroy the cells of the body, so knowing how to monitor these blood cells is important when preventing other kinds of injuries.

Things You'll Need

• List of current medications
• Blood test

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Instructions

• 1

  Make an appointment with your physician to set up lab work to keep monitor your platelet count. Having an ongoing relationship with your physician is going to be necessary when monitoring your platelet count.

• 2

  Take a list of your current medications as well as any symptoms that you may be experiencing with you if the doctor that you are seeing is not aware of your current cause of concern for the blood count.

• 3

  Have your blood drawn and tested for a complete blood count (CBC) including tests for leukocytes and platelet count. For low platelet counts caused by other medical conditions or treatments, other forms of tests may be ordered as well. The test results will be sent by the lab to your doctor.

• 4

  Follow up with your physician regarding your results and follow up with additional tests as ordered.