Anemia

Question 1

anemia

Answer 1

Reduction in hemoglobin (hgb) or a decrease in circulating red blood cell mass (below age/gender specific limits)

Question 2

symptoms of anemia

Answer 2

Palpitations
Dyspnea
Dizziness, fainting
Mild fatigue
Pallor, jaundice
chest pain
angina
heart attack

Question 3

macrocytic anemia

Answer 3

• Happens when the body produces unusually large RBCs and not enough RBCs → less hemoglobin → carry less oxygen
• Nuclear
• a group of disorders caused by impaired DNA synthesis and characterized by the presence of large RBCs
• When DNA synthesis is impaired, defective RBC maturation results.
• The RBCs are abnormal, large (macrocytic), and referred to as megaloblasts. Macrocytic RBCs are easily destroyed because they have fragile cell membranes
• result from cobalamin (vitamin B12) and folic acid deficiency
• Vitamin B12 deficiency, folate deficiency, liver disease

Question 4

normocytic anemia

Answer 4

• Normal sized blood cells but you don’t have/produce enough RBCs
• Acute blood loss, hemolysis, chronic renal disease, chronic disease, cancers, aplastic anemia, endocrine disorders, sickle cell anemia, pregnancy, starvation

Question 5

aplastic anemia

Answer 5

• red bone marrow stops producing erythrocytes
• the patient has peripheral blood pancytopenia (decrease of all blood cell types—RBCs, white blood cells [WBCs], and thrombocytes [platelets]) and hypocellular bone marrow

Question 6

sickle cell anemia

Answer 6

• inherited, autosomal recessive disorders characterized by the presence of an abnormal form of Hb in the RBC.
• This abnormal Hb, hemoglobin S (HbS), causes the erythrocyte to stiffen and elongate and take on a sickle shape in response to low levels of O2 in the blood
• Sickling episodes are most commonly triggered by low O2 tension in the blood
• Sickled RBCs become rigid and take on an elongated, crescent shape
• Sickled cells cannot easily pass through capillaries or other small vessels and can cause vascular occlusion, leading to acute or chronic tissue injury.
• The resulting hemostasis promotes a self-perpetuating cycle of local hypoxia, deoxygenation of more erythrocytes, and more sickling.

Question 7

microcytic anemia

Answer 7

• Cytoplasmic
• Happens when RBCs are smaller than normal so they don’t have enough hemoglobin → reduced oxygen carrying capacity
  iron deficiency anemia
• most common type of anemia, which is due to inadequate dietary iron, reduced intestinal absorption of dietary iron, or slow blood loss
• Without functional iron containing heme groups, erythroblasts cannot make hemoglobin
• Iron deficiency anemia, vitamin B6 deficiency, copper deficiency, thalassemia, lead poisoning

Question 8

thalassemia

Answer 8

• inadequate production of normal Hb, and, therefore, decreased RBC production
• caused by an absent or reduced globulin protein, so there is insufficient production of normal Hb
• Varying levels of symptoms