How are blood disorders diagnosed?

How are blood disorders diagnosed?

Your hematologist uses your medical history, a physical examination and laboratory testing to assess blood disorders. Your provider may order several blood tests, including a complete blood count (CBC) to measure how much hemoglobin is in your blood, the shape and size of red blood cells, and how many different types of white blood cells and platelets that are in your blood.

Your provider may order other, more specific tests to check for specific blood disorders like von Willebrand disease and polycythemia vera.

In rare cases, your provider may order a bone marrow biopsy.

Sometimes diagnosing clotting disorders can be difficult. You may have bleeding symptoms, but even after extensive testing no abnormalities can be identified. This can be frustrating for you and your healthcare provider, especially when deciding whether or not it's safe to proceed with surgery. Despite these difficulties, coagulation medicine is an area of intense research and much progress has been made in just the last decade.