What complication might happen to a person diagnosed with primary polycythemia?

What complication might happen to a person diagnosed with primary polycythemia?

Increased blood thickness and decreased blood flow, as well as abnormalities in your platelets, raise your risk of blood clots. Blood clots can cause a stroke, a heart attack, or a blockage in an artery in your lungs or a vein deep within a leg muscle or in the abdomen.

What are the most common pathophysiologic consequences of polycythemia vera?

Complications include thrombosis, bleeding, and hyperuricemia; some patients eventually develop myelofibrosis or rarely transformation to acute leukemia. Polycythemia vera is often first suspected because of an elevated hemoglobin level; neutrophils and platelets are usually, but not invariably, increased.

What lung disease causes polycythemia?

People can develop polycythemia as a consequence of chronic lung diseases like emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, or sleep apnea. In these patients, decreased oxygen from poor lung function triggers overproduction of red blood cells to carry more oxygen to the body tissues.

What is primary polycythemia caused by?

Primary polycythemias are due to acquired or inherited genetic mutations causing abnormally high levels of red blood cell precursors. Primary familial and congenital polycythemia (PFCP) and polycythemia vera (PV) are in this category.

How does polycythemia cause respiratory distress?

Respiratory distress. This is due to the elevated blood viscosity. The increased blood viscosity reduces pulmonary blood flow and results in cyanosis, tachypnea, vascular congestion and pulmonary hypertension.

What is the life expectancy of someone with polycythemia vera?

According to an article in Blood Cancer Journal, the median survival time for people with PV is 14 years after diagnosis. The authors take this survival time from a study in which half of the participants were still alive 14 years after diagnosis. Younger people tend to live for longer with the disease.

What is difference between polycythemia and polycythemia vera?

Polycythemia, also called erythrocytosis, refers to an increase in red blood cell mass, noted on laboratory evaluation as increased hemoglobin and hematocrit levels. Polycythemia vera is a subtype of polycythemia and is associated with the overproduction of all 3 cell lines.

What are the signs and symptoms of polycythemia?

What are the symptoms of polycythemia vera?

• Lack of energy (fatigue) or weakness.
• Headache.
• Dizziness.
• Shortness of breath and trouble breathing while lying down.
• Vision problems, such as double vision, blurred vision, and blind spots.
• Inability to concentrate.
• Night sweats.
• Face and becomes red and warm (flushed)

How is polycythemia detected?

To diagnose PV, your doctor will perform a test called a complete blood count (CBC) to see if your number of red blood cells is higher than normal. Your doctor may also test your blood to look for amounts of a hormone called erythropoietin. Lower-than-normal levels of this hormone can be a sign of PV.

Why there is polycythemia in respiratory failure?

Unlike healthy subjects adjusting to high altitude, patients with chronic respiratory failure do not always develop polycythaemia. In those who do, the physiopathology of polycythaemia remains unknown. It seems to be due to insufficient action more than to insufficient production of erythropoietin.

Is polycythemia vera a death sentence?

There is currently no cure for PV, but the disease is not necessarily a death sentence. According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the median life expectancy after diagnosis is 20 years.

Can you live a full life with polycythemia vera?

Median survival in patients with polycythemia vera (PV), which is 1.5-3 years in the absence of therapy, has been extended to approximately 14 years overall, and to 24 years for patients younger than 60 years of age, because of new therapeutic tools.