My Husband Has A Platelet Count Of 67,000, He Is

Posted on Thu, 4 Apr 2019

Question: my husband has a platelet count of 67,000, he is EXTREMELY exercise intolerant and cannot make it up stairs without becoming completely tired and winded (61 yr old ex- competitive runner who was active until these symptoms) , has pain in the center of his abdomen, scans show nothing except an enlarged liver. has been to 5 doctors and they do not know. XXXXXXX was scheduled but postponed because of low platelet. Other blood work normal. Has a myocardial bridge, which was discovered 2 yrs ago during surgical Ablasion for Aflutter & Afib which was partly successful. He still has some Afib). He takes Metoprolol and Atorvastatin. Other symptoms are: he is very cold most of the time, esp at night when sitting ...and wears a down coat when I have on a tee shirt. Also he has very bad, sweet, fruity smelling breath even tho we get regular cleanings and he has no tooth problems. next scheduled appt is with a hematologist. Oh, and he has had a colonoscopy and also scoped down throat to check his stomach. Please help?

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (9 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
I would recommend peforming some tests:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome to Ask a Doctor service!

I passed carefully through your question and would explain that his symptoms could be related to a metabolic disorder.

For this reason, I would recommend performing further tests to investigate for the possible causes underlying his complaints:

- a cardiac ultrasound and NT Pro BNP levels
- thyroid hormone levels for possible thyroid gland dysfunction
- vitamin D and vitamin B12 plasma levels for possible deficiency
- HbA1C levels for possible diabetes
- cortisol and ACTH plasma levels for possible deficiency
- magnesium plasma levels for possible defiency
- complete blood count, PCR, ESR for inflammation.

A blood lipid profile is necessary too. In case of low cholesterol levels, I would recommend stopping atorvastatin, which can trigger all this clinical situation.

You should discuss with his doctor on the above tests.

Hope you will find this answer helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Ilir Sharka, Cardiologist

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar