Blood platelets are involved in blood clotting. A platelet count that is too low can cause symptoms that should not be ignored.
Blood is made up of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets (also called thrombocytes) which are fragments of certain cells developing in the bone marrow. Platelets help the blood to coagulate : in other words, it is they who trigger the clotting process when you are injured (cut, wound, etc.) or that we have a hemorrhage, forming what we call a “platelet aggregate” which will stop the bleeding. On average, an individual has between 150,000 and 400,000 pads per cubic millimeter of blood. We are talking about thrombocytopenia or thrombocytopenia when a person has a platelet count below 150,000. If this thrombocytopenia is moderate (around 80 0000 100 000/mm3 for example) it does not manifest itself. On the other hand, if she is an adult (< 50,000/mm3 or even less – for example 10,000), many symptoms can appear:
- The appearance ofspontaneous hematomas (blue) or which occur easily even in the event of a minor shock.
- The appearance of small purple red spots on the skin (purpura). “Since there are not enough platelets, the red blood cells will cross the wall of the small blood vessels and settle under the skin, hence the appearance of small spots“, explains Professor Philippe Hénon, hematologist and founder of CellProthera (French biotech at the origin of Cardiac Regenerative Therapy).
- Frequent nosebleeds
- Bleeding gums
- Gynecological hemorrhages (heavier periods and/or abnormal duration) in women
- A very significant lack of platelets can lead to more serious bleeding such as digestive bleeding (presence of red blood in the stools or vomiting of blood – haematemesis), urinary or cerebral.
- Heavy bleeding can lead to anemia (to be added pallor, significant fatigue… which are signs of anemia)
The sign of what diseases?
A lack of blood platelets can be caused by:
► a mild autoimmune infection (the body will produce antibodies which will destroy the platelets) which is called a immunological thrombocytopenic purpura. “It is relatively common and observed at all ages. It can be temporary or last“, specifies our interlocutor. When this persists, there are a certain number of treatments such asadministration of corticosteroids which is rather effective, but causes side effects in the event of long-term administration, orremoval of the spleen (with vaccination against pneumococcus) when the entire therapeutic arsenal has been explored without satisfactory results (but not before the age of 5-6 in children)
► a severe cancerous or malignant pathology, such as leukemia
► the chemotherapy
► of genetic diseasesas Bernard-Soulier syndrome : the number of platelets is normal or slightly reduced, but functionally abnormal : they are not capable of sticking together and inducing a satisfactory coagulation process.
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► disseminated intravascular coagulation syndrome (DIC), visible during certain forms of acute leukemia or post-operatively (particularly in the case of pelvic or gynecological surgery, and sometimes after bone marrow transplantation). “This is a paradoxical phenomenon where, as its name suggests, the platelets will aggregate massively with each other forming platelet micro-clots which will block multiple small arterial vessels. These platelet aggregates being very numerous, the number of freely circulating platelets will decrease drastically and, paradoxically since it is at the origin of a phenomenon of hypercoagulability, patients begin to bleed catastrophically“, with a vital risk to be treated as an absolute emergency, explains the hematologist.