What is the cause of low platelet count in children?

Health issues have always been of great concern and importance to people, especially for children with fragile and delicate bodies. After the results of physical health examinations come out, some parents may find that their children have lower-than-normal platelet levels, and they will feel very panicked and uneasy. Next, we will briefly answer the more common and more common question of what causes low platelet count in children. Let’s take a look together.

1. What are platelets? Platelets are one of the formed elements in mammalian blood. They are small pieces of cytoplasm with biological activity that fall off from the cytoplasm of mature megakaryocytes in the bone marrow. They are small in size, without nucleus, and are disc-shaped with two slightly concave sides. There are (100~300)×10^9 cells/L, and the diameter is 2-3 microns. Platelets have long been viewed as non-functional cell fragments in the blood.

2. The role of platelets: Platelets have a specific morphological structure and biochemical composition. There is a relatively constant number of platelets in normal blood (for example, the number of platelets in humans is 100,000 to 300,000 per cubic millimeter). They play an important role in physiological and pathological processes such as hemostasis, wound healing, inflammatory response, thrombosis and organ transplant rejection.

3. Reasons for low platelet count in children: When the platelet count is <100×10^9/L, it is thrombocytopenia, which is common in platelet production disorders such as aplastic anemia, acute leukemia, acute radiation sickness, etc.; increased platelet destruction, such as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, hypersplenism, excessive consumption such as disseminated intravascular coagulation, familial thrombocytopenia such as giant platelet syndrome, etc.

For the sake of your health, it is recommended that you go to the hospital for regular physical examinations. When you find any abnormality in your body, you must find the cause and root of the problem in time. If the situation is serious, it is best to consult a doctor and seek professional diagnosis and treatment. I hope that the above simple introduction to the problem of low platelet count in children will be helpful to friends who have doubts in this regard.