An illustration of bone marrow in a patient with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). Those with MDS have abnormal blood-forming cells in their bone marrow. As seen in this patient with MDS, some blood stem cells remain blasts, platelets and red blood cells have shortened life spans, and there are too few white blood cells. A low number of platelets is characterized as thrombocytopenia. Too few red blood cells leads to anemia and too few white blood cells negatively impacts one's immune system.
