Bone Marrow Biopsy?

So, my Princess is about 6 months into this ITP diagnosis. The hematologist is going to be talking with us about a bone marrow biopsy.

Have any of you had this done with your kids? Is this normal once ITP is still around after 6 months? We have had fluctuating platelet counts along with IVIG treatments.

If you have had the biopsy done, did it show anything abnormal?

Trying to stay away from google...

It seems to be pretty much standard to get a BMB after 6 months - supposedly not necessary, but a lot of haematologists seem to do it. I think they are just double checking the diagnosis. My son's didn't show anything abnormal. It was very uneventful - he was eating a burger an hour after it, and was out on his bike about 3 hours after.

Hope it all goes well, and try not to worry too much.

Ali

A bone marrow biopsy is fairly common with ITP. It is done to rule out other possible diagnoses. The most common diagnosis other than ITP is Aplastic Anemia and I can tell you that is a very rare finding, and low red cells are usually present as well as low platelets.

Yes, stay away from Google. You will only find things that scare you and do not apply anyway. 99% of the time, it it just ITP.

For us not so much common. My daughter's hematologist doesn't recommend doing them at all for ITP. She said they used to do them all the time in the past like 20 years ago but today not so much because it doesn't really help them (in their department) because they always come back normal. Blood work can rule out different blood disorders. Because when an CBC is done they normally check my daughters platelet size, and they are always large and in ITP they are always large platelets. In other blood disorders they can be smaller or maybe even different colors. Poor thing if your hema recommends it then do it.

My daughter had a ton of blood work done to see what's going on, and they really are just concluding it's ITP. I also had a big list of things that could possibly be with low platelet count all these blood disorders, lupus, everything you can think of and my daughter got tested for a lot of it, and everything came back good. I myself think they can find a lot of things from just blood work.

They can find a lot of things from blood work, but some disorders associated with ITP take time to develop and may not be present upon initial testing. Having said that, the bone marrow biopsy may not disclose anything either since it is only used for certain purposes.

The ONLY reason our hema did a BMB originally and soon after his initial diagnosis was because he did not respond to anything they tried and because we have a history of blood cancers in our immediate family. If we had not had the blood cancer history he said he wouldn't even consider it. I do think it depends on the hema and perhaps some consider family history while others do not. If it's avoidable, I say avoid it.

Thank you all. Tomorrow will be our 6 month. And we go see the hematologist in the morning. We will see what she says when we get there.

I am find either way, and maybe it will ease my mind to know we checked for everything. She will be having ENT surgery for another set of ear tubes, adenoid removal, and sinus clean out. So we are planning to schedule it all at the same time.

We have also had her tested for Lupus. I think she shows many signs, but she is so young, it is hard to get a dx anyway. She does have a positive ANA, but they said that could be due to her IVIG treatments and a donor that shows positive. We can't get a true ANA of hers unless we go 4-5 months without IVIG.

I will update after her appointment tomorrow.

Either way, it looks like we are sticking around here for a while. Glad there is a support website.

Hi. Do you think they will want to do a bone marrow if my daughter was diagnosed with Evans syndrome? Is there a good place to help treat her Evans? Some people have said San Diego, etc.
Our Hemetologist flies in from Oakland, CA. IVIG and steroids did not help her counts at all.