Heamatology Flashcards
Anaemia
Present when there is a decrease of haemoglobin in the blood below the reference level for the age and sex of the individual
Menorrhagia
severe menstruation with heavy blood loss
Beta thalassaemia
reduced B chain synthesis, excess alpha chains
alpha thalassaemia
reduced A chain synthesis
Sickle cell anaemia
a disorder of quality (abnormal molecule or variant haemoglobins)
polycythaemia
increase in haemoglobin, packed cell volume (PCV) known as haematocrit and red cell count
erythromelalgia
burning sensation in fingers and toes
thrombosis
solid mass formed in the circulation from the constituents of the blood during life - essentially it is a clot within a blood vessel - a thrombus
platelets
anucleate cells formed by fragmentation of megakaryocytic (MK) cytoplasm in bone marrow
Thrombocytopenia
due to immune destruction of platelets
The antibody-coated platelets are removed following binding to Fc receptors on macrophages
Leukaemia
Presence of rapidly proliferating immature blast blood cells (can be precursors of RBCs, platelets or white cells) in the bone marrow that are non functional i.e. defective.
Lymphoma
disorders caused by malignant proliferations of lymphocytes
these accumulate in the lymph nodes causing lymphadenopathy (enlaged lymph nodes), but may also be found in the peripheral blood or infiltrate organs
Hodgkins lymphoma
have characteristic cells with mirror-image nuclei called reed-Sternberg cells
non-hodgkins lymphoma
no characteristic cells
myeloma
cancer of undifferentiated B lymphocytes known as plasma cells (produce antibodies)
the accumulation of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow leads to progressive bone failure
