…a condition where the bone marrow produces too many blood cells (red, white and platelet). People with PV have abnormally high hemoglobin and are at risk for a stroke and progressing to acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Part of the therapy for PV is phlebotomy.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms resulting from iron overload include:
▪ Chronic fatigue
▪ Joint pain
▪ Abdominal pain
▪ Liver disease (cirrhosis, liver cancer)
▪ diabetes mellitus
▪ irregular heart rhythm
▪ heart attack or heart failure
▪ skin color changes (bronze, ashen-gray green)
▪ loss of period
▪ loss of interest in sex
▪ osteoarthritis
▪ osteoporosis
▪ hair loss
▪ enlarged liver or spleen
▪ impotence
▪ infertility
▪ hypogonadism
▪ hypothyroidism
▪ hypopituitarism
▪ depression
▪ adrenal function problems
▪ early onset neurodegenerative disease
▪ elevated blood sugar
▪ elevated liver enzymes
▪ elevated iron (serum iron, serum ferritin)
Treatment Options
The treatment for iron overload is iron reduction therapy. A person’s hemoglobin is key in the physician’s decision of iron reduction therapy. If the patient’s hemoglobin level is sufficient to tolerate blood removal (phlebotomy), the doctor can provide either an order for therapeutic phlebotomies or can recommend that a patient routinely donate blood. When a patient’s hemoglobin is too low for phlebotomy, iron reduction will likely require iron-chelation, which is the removal of iron using specific drugs. In some situations the physician may use a combination of these two therapies.