What causes reduction in platelet count in blood?
Patient: My father is 70 yrs old and a resident of Navi Mumbai.  He didn’t have a BP or Sugar problem.  One month back suddenly early in the morning he couldn’t get up, his body became heavy.  He was not able to lift his body.  We called up a doctor and she told his BP is 250 and he had a slight stroke and his left side was num and suggested a BP medicine, which we gave him immediately.  She suggested us to take him to the hospital immediately.  We shifted him to hospital where they did his city scan.  The report says :- Focal hypodense ares in right frontal periventricular and corona radiate is probably suggestive of acute non hemorrhagic infarcts in view of clinical history.  Mild generalized atrophy with periventricular ischemic changes.  No evidence of bleed or intracranial space occupying lesion.Suggest: MRI of the brain for further evaluation.MRI has been done.  While in the blood test report it was observed that the platelates count was reduced to 36000.  Even the bone marrow test was done, the reports were normal.  The blood test was done every alternative days in the hospital and before discharging his platelets count was 65000. The doctors team consisted of Hematologists and Neurologist. The doctors couldn’t found the reason behind dropping platelets and after 15 days he was discharged from the hospital.  Two days back we did his blood test and found that his platelets count dropped to 45000.  We will be highly obliged if you kindly tell us what may be the reason for this and suggest further treatment for this?     Email me on  YYYY@YYYY Doctor: Hi, thanks for sharing your father's health concerns with HCM!     If I were his treating Doctor for this case of chronic thrombocytopenia, I would suggest three possibilities in different stages: 1. reduced production: less number of megakaryocytes or inactive megakaryocytes in the bone marrow2. increased destruction like clotting here and there or splenic problems3. increased demand like medicines or virus or blood disorders consuming plateletsTherefore, assessment of bone marrow and drug review are necessary for confirmation/detection of the cause and to relieve your concerns!Hope this answers your question. If you have additional questions or follow up questions then please do not hesitate in writing to us. I will be happy to answer your questions. Wishing your father good health.