Myelodysplastic Syndrome, A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Myelodysplastic Syndrome (Refractory Anemia), Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases
Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a cluster of disorders when the blood cells formed in the bone marrow do not mature into healthy cells.
This leaves the person with fewer healthy blood cells in the body, mainly immature blood cells.
The blood cells that do not matured may not work properly.
Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) can be a form of cancer.
In about a third of people, MDS may become acute myeloid leukemia.
Causes
Stem cells in bone marrow form different types of blood cells.
With MDS, the DNA in stem cells becomes injured.
Since the DNA is injured, the stem cells cannot produce healthy blood cells.
Risk factors for MDS are:
1.Certain genetic disorders
2.Exposure to environmental or industrial chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, solvents, or heavy metals
3.Smoking
Previous cancer treatment increases the risk for MDS.
This is called secondary or treatment-linked MDS.
1.Certain chemotherapy drugs
2.Radiation therapy
People who have stem cell transplants may form MDS because they also have been given high doses of chemotherapy.
MDS normally happens in adults age of 60 years and older.
It is more frequent in men.
Symptoms
Early phase MDS often has no symptoms.
MDS is often found during other blood tests.
People with very low blood counts often have symptoms.
Symptoms are dependent on the type of blood cell affected, and they are:
1.Weakness or tiredness due to anemia
2.Shortness of breath
3.Easy bruising and bleeding
4.Small red or purple pinpoint dots under the skin caused by bleeding
5.Frequent infections and fever
Diagnosis:
People with MDS have a shortage of blood cells.
MDS may reduce the number of one or more of these:
1.Red blood cells
2.White blood cells
3.Platelets
The shapes of these cells may also get changed.
Investigations:
1.Full blood count
2.Cytochemistry, flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry, and immunophenotyping tests
3.Cytogenetics and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) are used for genetic analysis.
FISH is used to identify specific changes within chromosomes.
4.Genetic variations may help determine response to treatment.
5.Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy.
Treatment
The treatment will depend on several factors:
1.Whether the patient is low-risk or high-risk
2.The type of MDS the patient has
3.The age, health, and other conditions the patient may have, such as diabetes or heart disease
The purpose of MDS treatment is to prevent problems due to a shortage of blood cells, infections and bleeding.
It may consist of:
1.Blood transfusion
2.Drugs that promote the production of blood cells
3.Drugs that suppress the immune system
4.Low-dose chemotherapy to improve blood cell counts
5.Stem cell transplantation
Patients with low-danger, slow acting MDS may need no active treatment but are normally monitored in a hematology clinic.
In lower-risk MDS, the risk of AML progression is smaller and survival longer than in higher-risk MDS
In lower-risk MDS, the main priority is generally the treatment of cytopenias, mainly of anemia and improving quality of life.
Anemia often eventually requires repeated red blood cell transfusions, leading to potential iron overload.
Anemia and thrombocytopenia
In symptomatic anemia, in those with anemia-related cardiovascular disease, bleeding episodes and high risk of significant bleeds, treatment is supportive blood and platelet transfusions
While high-dose chemotherapy may cure a small subset of patients with MDS, allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation is the only currently available modality that is curative in a large proportion of patients.

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Myelodysplastic

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Mar 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370855056

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

Book preview

Myelodysplastic Syndrome,

A

Simple

Guide

To

The Condition,

Diagnosis,

Treatment

And

Related Conditions

By

Dr Kenneth Kee

M.B.,B.S. (Singapore)

Ph.D (Healthcare Administration)

Copyright Kenneth Kee 2018 Smashwords Edition

Published by Kenneth Kee at Smashwords.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated

To my wife Dorothy

And my children

Carolyn, Grace

And Kelvin

This book describes Myelodysplastic Syndrome (Refractory Anemia), Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases which is seen in some of my patients in my Family Clinic.

(What The patient Need to Treat Myelodysplastic Syndrome)

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

I have been writing medical articles for my blog http://kennethkee.blogspot.com (A Simple Guide to Medical Disorder) for the benefit of my patients since 2007.

My purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of my patients.

Health Education was also my dissertation for my Ph.D (Healthcare Administration).

I then wrote an autobiolographical account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com.

This autobiolographical account A Family Doctor’s Tale was combined with my early A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders into a new Wordpress Blog A Family Doctor’s Tale on http://kenkee481.wordpress.com.

From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 800 eBooks.

Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.

For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.

The later books go into more details of medical disorders.

The first chapter is always from my earlier blogs which unfortunately tends to have typos and spelling mistakes.

Since 2013, I have tried to improve my spelling and writing.

As I tried to bring the patient the latest information about a disorder or illness by reading the latest journals both online and offline, I find that I am learning more and improving on my own medical knowledge in diagnosis and treatment for my patients.

Just by writing all these simple guides I find that I have learned a lot from your reviews (good or bad), criticism and advice.

I am sorry for the repetitions in these simple guides as the second chapters onwards have new information as compared to my first chapter taken from my blog.

I also find repetition definitely help me and maybe some readers to remember the facts in the books more easily.

I apologize if these repetitions are irritating to some readers.

Chapter 1

Myelodysplastic Syndrome

What Is Myelodysplastic Syndrome?

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a cluster of disorders when the blood cells formed in the bone marrow do not mature into healthy cells.

This leaves the person with fewer healthy blood cells in the body, mainly immature blood cells.

The immature blood cells may not work properly.

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) can be a form of cancer.

In about a third of people, MDS may become acute myeloid leukemia.

The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of malignant hematopoietic disorders featured by dysplastic changes in one or more cell lineages, ineffective hematopoiesis and a changeable predilection to formation of acute myeloid leukemia (AML)

The bone marrow turns into hyper-cellular or hypo-cellular type with disrupted growth and maturation of a clonal proliferation of abnormal cells.

This produces peripheral blood cytopenias due to poorly sufficient hematopoiesis among healthy marrow cells, such as:

1. The myeloid (white cells),

2. Erythroid (red cells) and

3. Megakaryocyte (platelets) lines.

The degree to which each cell line is involved is very inconsistent.

The disease is highly different, varying from indolent to aggressive with rapid progression to AML.

About 10% of MDS are secondary, most often because of radiotherapy or chemotherapy for cancer.