A Colour Atlas of Neuropathology
DAVID I. GRAHAM · Journal of Clinical Pathology · 1978
there is accompanying iron deficiency, chronic inflammatory disease, or malig- nancy, but as we were concerned only with the significance of a raised MCV we did not correlate all the laboratory and clinical investigations of those patients with a normal MCV.It is suggested that blood film mor- phology, serum folate estimations, and bone marrow examinations would have been more appropriate in screening all geriatric patients with a raised MCV.The serum folate is too sensitive, being reduced in up to one-third of all geriatric admissions, and a bone marrow examina- tion is impractical as 11 % of all geriatric admissions would require one.We would still advise re-assessment after six months of the folate status of those geriatric patients who have a raised MCV that cannot be explained.