Deb Hipp is a freelance health and medical writer and editor who lives in Kansas City, Missouri. She is a former investigative reporter with more than 25 years of experience as a journalist and writer ...

Testing for white blood cell count and white cell differentials is an important part of leukemia diagnosis. But even after diagnosis, your white blood cell count helps monitor disease progression and ...

An unusual white blood cell count can be a sign of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a type of blood cancer. CML can affect the balance of white blood cells in the blood and cause them to function ...

A typical platelet count range can change with age. Platelet counts may fluctuate due to natural vascular aging, changes in bone marrow tissue, and altered blood plasma makeup. Platelets, or ...

A red blood cell (RBC) count measures the number of red blood cells in a sample of blood. It is part of a battery of tests called a complete blood count (CBC) that measures the different types and ...

A differential blood count is a blood test to check your white blood cell levels, which can indicate the presence of infection, disease, or an allergic reaction. Your doctor might order it as part of ...

You receive a phone call: the results from routine blood tests show a “low white cell count”. Your doctor explains that more investigations are necessary, perhaps a referral to the haematologists.

Your doctor will usually check your red blood cell count together with your other blood cell counts to look for conditions that cause low counts (anemia) or high counts. Many health conditions can ...

Leukemia starts in the bone marrow and can crowd out healthy cells, replacing them with abnormal leukemic cells. This often lowers red blood cell and platelet counts, causing fatigue and easy bleeding ...

In medicine, a person’s blood-test results are compared with the average range in a population. But results are highly individual and tightly regulated around a person’s own stable values. Changes to ...