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Why Blood Counts Matter in Myelodysplastic Syndrome
When Rose Zumbiel was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome at age 48, she was far from the average patient. Myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, tends to affect older individuals — average age at diagnosis: 71 — and occurs more often in men than women.
The condition can occur when stem cells in the bone marrow are damaged and may not properly mature into red blood cells that carry oxygen, white blood cells that fight infection or platelets that help blood to clot. In fact, until recently, MDS was sometimes called “preleukemia” because the disease can progress into acute leukemia.
Approximately 13,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with the disease each year.
“When I was diagnosed, they told me they did not even really have a name for what I had,” Zumbiel, now 69, recalls. “It was known as a rare blood disease.”
Source: Cure