Polycythemia (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Polycythemia (or polycythaemia) is a disease state in which the proportion of blood volume that is occupied by red blood cells increases. Blood volume proportions can be measured as hematocrit level. It can be due to an increase in the mass of red blood cells ("absolute polycythemia") or to a decrease in the volume of plasma ("relative polycythemia"). The overproduction of red blood cells may be due to a primary process in the bone marrow (a so-called myeloproliferative syndrome), or it may be a reaction to chronically low oxygen levels or, rarely, a malignancy.