Cardiovascular Flashcards
What is anaemia?
Reduction in total circulating red blood cell mass
Reduction in oxygen carrying capacity of blood
How is anaemia measured?
Haemoglobin concentration of blood
How does anaemia arise?
Imbalance between rate of production of RBCs and rate of destruction
What does the megakaryocyte/erythroid precursor (MEP) give rise to?
- Erythrocytes
2. Platelets
What does the granulocyte/macrophage progenitor (GMP) give rise to?
- Macrophages
- Neutrophils
- Eosinohils
- Basophils
What does the common myeloid progenitor give rise to?
- MEP
2. GMP
What does the common lymphoid progenitor give rise to?
- B cells and plasma cells
- T cells
- Natural killer cells
What are the erythroid progenitors?
- Erythroblasts (normoblasts)
2. Reticulocytes
What is the diameter of a normal RBC?
6 - 9.5 µm (7µm average)
What is the RBC life span?
120 days
Where are RBCs destroyed?
Spleen
What is the minor form of haemoglobin?
HbA2
α2 δ2 chains
What are the signs and symptoms of anaemia?
- Thin skin and nails
- Pale mucous membranes
- Hypoxic damage in viscera
- Compensatory changes
What are the results of hypoxic damage in viscera in anaemia?
- Weakness, malaise and easy fatiguability
- Angina pectoris
- Dimness of vision, headache, faintness
What are the compensatory changes in anaemia?
- Hyperplasia of haematopoietic tissue in bone marrow
- Increased heart rate and cardiac output
- Increased breathing rate
What causes anaemia?
- Dyserythropoiesis
- Increased destruction of RBCs
- Haemorrhage
What is dyserythropoiesis?
Impaired generation of RBCs or their constituents
What causes dyserythropoiesis?
- Stem cell abnormalities
2. Abnormalities of erythroblasts and red cell production
What is aplastic anaemia?
Anaemia caused by stem cell abnormality
Little or no functional bone marrow
What is megaloblastic anaemia?
Anaemia caused by defective DNA synthesis
What is iron deficiency anaemia?
Anaemia caused by defective haem synthesis
What is thalassaemia?
Anaemia caused by defective globin synthesis
What causes haemolytic anaemias?
- Intrinsic abnormalities of the red blood cell (usually hereditary)
- Extrinsic abnormalities (usually acquired)
What causes megaloblastic anaemia?
Deficiency of vitamin B12 or folic acid, which are coenzymes in the synthesis of thymidine
What are the features of megaloblastic anaemia?
- Ineffective haemopoiesis leads to pancytopenia
- Expansion of haematopoietic tissue
- Megaloblasts - may appear in blood
- Macrocytosis
- Anisocytosis
- Poikilocytosis
- Iron deposition in organs
What are the effects of megaloblastic anaemia on other cells and tissues?
- Neutrophils and megakaryocytes are large with hypersegmented nuclei
- Enlarged nuclei in gut epithelial cells
What are megaloblasts?
Enlarged RBC precursors
What is macrocytosis?
Enlarged RBCs
What is anisocytosis?
RBCs are different sizes
What is poikilocytosis?
RBCs are different shapes
What is the role of vitamin B12?
Coenzyme required for conversion of transport form of folic acid to tetrahydrofolate (FH4)
What is the transport form of folic acid?
methyl-tetrahydrofolate
What is the role of tetrahydrofolate (FH4)?
Enables transfer of one-carbon units
Required for thymidine synthesis
Where does vitamin B12 come from?
Entirely diet
Animal sources
What is the minimum daily requirement of vitamin B12?
1µg
Average diet has hundreds of µg per day
Where is vitamin B12 absorbed?
Terminal ileum
Requires intrinsic factor from gastric mucosa
Where is vitamin B12 stored?
Liver
5 year store
What causes vitamin B12 deficiency?
- Inadequate intake, eg. vegans
- Increased requirements
- Malabsorption due to gastric causes
- Malabsorption due to pancreatic insufficiency
- Malabsorption due to ileal disease
What is pernicious anaemia?
Intrinsic factor deficiency due to autoimmune destruction of gastric mucosa
Where does folate come from?
Entirely diet
Vegetables and fruit
What is the minimum daily folate requirement?
50µg
Where is folate absorbed?
Jejunum
How long does folate storage provide for?
100 day reserve
What causes folate deficiency?
- Inadequate intake, eg. elderly, alcoholics
- Increased requirements
- Inadequate absorption in small bowel disease
- Impaired utilisation
What is methotrexate?
Folic acid antagonist
What is the commonest anaemia in the UK?
Iron deficiency anaemia
What are the features of RBCs in iron deficiency anaemia?
- Microcytic
- Poikilocytic
- Hypochromic
What is the daily iron requirement?
7mg for male
15mg for female
What are dietary sources of iron?
- Organic (haem) in animal produce (25% absorbed)
2. Inorganic (non-haem) in vegetables (5% absorbed)
What is ferritin?
Intracellular protein that binds iron and stores it
What is haemosiderin?
What ferritin is converted to in cases of iron overload
How is iron balance maintained?
Regulation of iron absorption in the duodenum
What is hepcidin?
Released by liver when hepatic iron levels rise
Prevents iron absorption
What are the causes of iron deficiency?
- Impaired absorption
- Increased demand
- Chronic blood loss, eg. ulcer or malignancy
- Low dietary intake
What are the effects of severe iron deficiency?
- Loss of function of iron-containing enzymes
- Malabsorption
- Changes in nails, hair, tongue, etc.
Give two examples of iron-containing enzymes
- Catalase
2. Cytochromes
What is extravascular haemolytic anaemia?
Removal of RBCs by macrophages, largely in spleen
Causes splenomegaly
What is intravascular haemolytic anaemia?
Lysis of RBCs within the circulation
What is the physiological response to haemolytic anaemia?
- Increased erythropoiesis
- Expansion of red marrow
- Extramedullary haemopoiesis
What are some features of the blood in haemolytic anaemia?
- Increased numbers of reticulocytes
2. May contain erythroblasts
What are the features of intrinsic haemolytic anaemia?
- Hereditary
- Deformed erythrocytes cannot travel through spleen sinusoids
- Trapped RBCs are phagocytosed by macrophages
What are the intrinsic causes of haemolytic anaemia?
- Structural defects
- Enzyme defects
- Haemoglobin abnormalities
What is hereditary spherocytosis?
Defects in RBC skeleton lead to abnormal spheroidal cells
What enzyme defects cause haemolytic anaemia?
Pyruvate kinase deficiency causes reduced ATP production from glycolysis
What are the extrinsic causes of haemolytic anaemia?
- Immune
- Physical
- Chemical
- Infection
What is haemolytic anaemia of the newborn?
Immune reaction between maternal antibodies and fetal red blood cells
What physical factors cause haemolytic anaemia?
Valve replacement
What chemical factors cause haemolytic anaemia?
Lead poisoning
What infectious factors cause haemolytic anaemia?
Malaria
What causes sickle cell disease?
Point mutation
Changes glutamic acid to valine
Changes polar amino acid on external surface of β globin protein
What are the effects of sickle cell disease in homozygotes?
HbS aggregates and polymerises due to infection, dehydration, decreased pO2, decreased pH
What are the consequences of sickle cell disease?
- Haemolysis
- Occlusion of small blood vessels
- Tissue hypoxia/infarction
- Chronic tissue hypoxia
Where does haemolysis mostly occur in sickle cell disease?
Spleen
Which microvascular beds are most likely to be occluded in sickle cell disease?
Where flow is slow
- Spleen
- Bone marrow
- Sites of inflammation
How much Hb is HbS in heterozygotes?
40%
Why does HbS protect against malaria?
Only in heterozygotes
Increased clearance of parasitised red blood cells following sickling
What is thalassaemia?
Absent or reduced synthesis of globin chains of HbA
What RBC conditions protect against malaria?
- Sickle cell trait
2. Thalassaemia
What are the two consequences of thalassaemia?
- Reduced RBC production
2. Relative abundance of other globin chain
What are some features of RBCs in thalassaemia?
- Hypochromic
- Microcytic
- Anisocytosis
What is the effect of relative abundance of other globin chain in thalassaemia?
- Precipitates as inclusions
- Damages cell membrane
- Impaires DNA synthesis
- Destruction of erythroblasts
- Destruction of RBCs
Which chromosome codes for β chain?
Single gene on chromosome 11
What do mutations in β chain cause?
- Loss of β chain (β0)
2. Inadequate synthesis of β chain (β+)
What processes might β chain mutations affect?
- Gene transcription
- RNA splicing
- Translation
What is thalassaemia major?
Both β chain genes are mutated
β0/β0, β+/β+, β0/β+
Severe anaemia
What is thalassaemia minor?
Only one β chain gene is mutated
β0/β or β+/β
Mild anaemia
What are the physiological consequences of thalassaemia?
- Bone marrow expansion with erosion of cortical bone
- Extramedullary haemopoiesis
- Excessive absorption of dietary iron
- Iron overload
What are α chains encoded by?
Two duplicated genes on each chromosome 16
Each gene contributes 25% of α globin protein
What causes α thalassaemia?
Deletion of α chain genes
Which thalassaemia is more severe?
β thalassaemia
Free β and γ chains are more soluble than free α chains
What is HbH (β4) disease?
–/-α
Severe anaemia
What is Hb Barts (γ4) disease?
–/–
Lethal in utero
What is pancytopaenia?
Reduced numbers of RBCs, WBCs and platelets in blood
What is a reticulocyte?
Immature red blood cell that no longer contains a nucleus
What is an erythroblast?
Early nucleated red blood cell precursor
What is a normoblast?
Late nucleated red blood cell precursor
What is normal haemostasis?
Physiological response of blood vessels to injury, to prevent blood loss
What accomplishes haemostasis?
- Platelets
- Proteins of plasma-based coagulation cascade
- Endothelial cells
What are platelets?
Discoid anuclear bodies
Produced by cytoplasmic fragmentation of megakaryocytes in bone marrow
What is the lifespan of a platelet?
7 days
How are platelets activated?
By extracellular matrix proteins
Especially collagens exposed when endothelial layer is monolayer damaged
How do platelets adhere to collagen?
Strongly
Via von Willebrand factor
What do platelets do once they adhere to collagen?
- Change their shape
- Shoot out long processes
- Secrete chemical signals
What chemical signals do platelets secrete?
- Thromboxane A2
- Vasoactive amines, eg. 5HT
- ADP
What do platelet signals promote?
- Vasoconstriction
2. Platelet aggregation
What forms the primary haemostatic plug?
Aggregated platelets in damaged blood vessel
Platelet membranes drawn into close apposition with eventual fusion