Diagnosing ET and scoring your ET risks

Back in April, the Cleveland Clinic added some updated info in handy chart form that might be useful to ET patients, including the scoring system used by clinicians to determine your prognosis. For those new to ET, this info may help you understand what tests your doctor will order and what factors they look at when they assess your risks.

Here's the first chart:

Diagnostic criteria for essential thrombocythemia

Current (2008) WHO criteria	Proposed Criteria
Major criteria
Platelet count ≥450 x 109/L Megakaryocyte proliferation with large and mature morphology Not meeting WHO criteria for CML, PV, PMF, MDS or other myeloid neoplasm Demonstration of JAK2 V617F or other clonal marker or no evidence of reactive thrombocytosis	Platelet count ≥450 x 109/L Megakaryocyte proliferation with large and mature morphology Not meeting WHO criteria for CML, PV, PMF, MDS or other myeloid neoplasm Presence of JAK2, CALR, or MPL mutation
Minor criteria
	Presence of a clonal marker (eg, abnormal karyotype) or absence of evidence for reactive thrombocytosis
Requires all 4 major criteria	Requires all 4 major criteria OR first 3 major criteria and 1 minor criterion

CML = chronic myelogenous leukemia; ET = essential thrombocythemia; MDS = myelodysplastic syndrome; PMF = primary myelofibrosis; PV = polycythemia vera; WHO = World Health Organization.

Groundhog Day and Simpson Oil

The local worthies pose with Punxsutawney Phil, in Punxsutawney,
Pennsylvania, which has one of the more famous Groundhog Day
celebrations in the northern United States. 

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone!

If you don't live in a wintry part of the U.S., you probably don't know or care about Groundhog Day. But the lore is that if the groundhog comes out of his hole and sees his shadow today, there will be six more weeks of winter.

Today is very cold, clear, and sunny, but I'm not prognosticating the end of the winter by it.

And neither am I publishing comments pushing Rick Simpson's cannabis oil as a cure for ET or Simpson's book, Phoenix Tears, or other unsubstantiated cure claims here or on the FB page.