Chronic alcohol use can suppress bone marrow and cause macrocytic anemia; which finding would you expect?

Study for the BIPC Substance Abuse and Disorders Exam. Challenge yourself with a variety of questions to enhance your knowledge and strengthen your preparation. Each question comes with hints and explanations to help you understand and retain crucial information.

Multiple Choice

Chronic alcohol use can suppress bone marrow and cause macrocytic anemia; which finding would you expect?

Explanation:
Chronic alcohol use can suppress bone marrow and cause macrocytic anemia, in which red blood cells are larger than normal due to impaired DNA synthesis and nutritional deficiencies. This leads to an elevated mean corpuscular volume (MCV). So the expected finding is an increased MCV. A decreased MCV would point to microcytosis (like iron deficiency), a normal MCV would not reflect the macrocytosis, and RDW is not typically decreased in macrocytic states (it is usually normal or increased).

Chronic alcohol use can suppress bone marrow and cause macrocytic anemia, in which red blood cells are larger than normal due to impaired DNA synthesis and nutritional deficiencies. This leads to an elevated mean corpuscular volume (MCV). So the expected finding is an increased MCV. A decreased MCV would point to microcytosis (like iron deficiency), a normal MCV would not reflect the macrocytosis, and RDW is not typically decreased in macrocytic states (it is usually normal or increased).

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