What is PV?

You may remember in my last issue regarding MPNs as a whole, over the next few weeks I plan on breaking down each of the 3 main MPNs (PV, ET, and MF).

 I will start with Polycythemia Vera(we will be addressing Primary Polycythemia).

PolyCythemia Vera

Poly-Greek for many

Cythemia(Made up of 2 words) Kytos – Greek word meaning Cell and

Haima – Greek word meaning Blood.

Vera – From the word Verus, meaning true. 

To sum that up: Many blood cells floating around in the blood stream.

PV affects all of the hematopoietic bone marrow elements, meaning all the blood cells produced in the marrow are increased. This can lead to a variety of different issues and symptoms including, but not limited to headaches, itching(unique to PV), dizziness, abdominal pain(due to enlarged spleen or possibly liver) increased risk of blood clots, and stroke.

As I said in the issue before, each of these MPNs can be very difficult to diagnose, as the symptoms can be difficult to pinpoint, and often lend themselves easily to a variety of diseases. I think I will go through and answer the same some of the same questions as in the first entry, applying them to PV.

How are you diagnosed with that disease/condition/thing?

How do they treat it?

When will it be cured?

As with most MPNs, PV can often be discovered after some other event/illness/diagnosis. Regardless of how the disease is initially discovered, there are several criteria that must be present to help verify which MPN you are dealing with. Most commonly diagnosis happens after a series of blood tests; Complete Blood Count (CBC), Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP), and often Bone Marrow Biopsy (BMB). What the doctor is looking for in aCBCis an abnormal increase in blood cell amounts. Red cells, white cells, platelets, everything. With a BMB your doctor will be looking at bone marrow abnormalities and genetic markers in the marrow.

Treatment for PV varies by patient. Treatment ranges from watch and wait, or phlebotomy, to prescription medications like Hydroxyurea or Anagrelide(More common for ET patients, but  PV can take it as well). Phlebotomy is basically blood letting. When counts get too high, a patient will go to the clinic, and a unit or so of blood will be removed from their body, thus lowering blood counts.

As for a cure, this is the same as with any MPN. There is no “cure” per se. The disease can be managed thru treatment, and one can live a normal life with little to no interference from the disease.

 I do not claim to know all there is to know about ANY myeloproliferative neoplasm for that matter…. I am sure that I missed something here, but this is just my general understanding, and the way I would explain it to someone who knew nothing about PV. I would like to take this opportunity to invite PV patients to add to this. Particularly things like “What do you wish you had known at diagnosis that no one told you?”