DEAR DOCTORS: My husband is having an elective surgery soon. It requires full anaesthesia, so he has had a lot of pre-op tests.
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DEAR DOCTORS: My husband is having an elective surgery soon. It requires full anaesthesia, so he has had a lot of pre-op tests. One of the blood tests showed that his red blood cells are too big. The nurse said it happens when you drink too much. What causes that? Is it dangerous?
DEAR READER: When someone’s red blood cells become abnormally large, it is a condition known as macrocytosis. These enlarged blood cells are nutrient-poor and break down faster than normal cells. The name of the condition derives from Greek, with “macro” meaning large in scale, “cyto” referring to cells and “osis” indicating an abnormal condition.
Unless it is quite severe, macrocytosis usually does not cause any noticeable symptoms. As a result, it is often discovered in the course of routine blood tests, such as the pre-operative workups your husband was asked to undergo. Those workups…