Laboratory Medicine & Anemias Flashcards
Anemia
Subnormal amount of RBC circulating in blood
Anemia measurement amounts for men and women
Hemoglobin : <13.5 for men and <12 for women
Hematocrit : <41% for men and <36% for women
Hematocrit roughly 3x hemoglobin
Clinical presentation of anemia
Weakness Malaise Fatigue Exertion Dyspnea Pale skin and conjunctiva Angina pectoris and heart failure ( larger risk if person has preexisting conditions)
Types of Microcytic Anemia
Microcytic anemia - MCV<80 ( MCV average volume/size of RBC)
- Sideroblastic anemia
- Anemia of chronic disease
- Lead poisoning
- Thalassemia
- Iron Deficiency (late)
SALTI
How does Microcytic anemia occur
Decrease in hemoglobin production-> in order to adapt to less hemoglobin erythroblasts have one division to become normal RBC then go through an extra division..producing smaller cells
Iron deficiency anemia
Most common cause of anemia worldwide
Iron loss> iron intake
Total body iron in women is less than men…women more vulnerable to iron deficiency due to pregnancy and menses
Causes of iron deficiency anemia
No regulatory pathway for iron. Iron is only lost through 1. Bleeding 2. Epithelial cell loss from skin , gut, or genitourinary tract
Major cause of iron deficiency is 1. Blood loss or 2. Dietary deficiency
Infants -> breast feeding common cause due to lack of FE in breast milk
Children-> poor diet
Adults -> MALES: peptic ulcer disease FEMALE: menorrhagia &
Pregnancy
Elderly: western wrld:colon polyps/ carcinoma ( anytime elderly w/
Anemia is seen keep in mind to check for cancer)
Developing world: hookworm
Other causes : malnutrition, gastrectomy, malabsorption -> celiac
Disease
Sources of Iron
North American eat 10-20 mg of iron….mostly from meat Nd veggies
HEME iron- present in animal foods..20% absorbed
NON-heme iron- egg yolks and food from plants..1-2% absorbed
MILK A POOR SOURCE OF IRON…why babies need supplement
Where is iron absorbed in the body?
Iron is absorbed primarily in the duodenum
What is the pathway of Iron once it enters the body
1.Dietary iron (Fe+3) reduced to FE+2 via FERRIREDUCTASE
2.DMT1 transporter transports FE2 into enterocyte
THEN
3. FE2 stored intracellularly via ferritin
OR
3. Fe+2 released into blood stream via ferroportin-> FE2 oxidized to FE3 and loaded onto transferrin
Ferritin
- can be found in all tissues , but mainly stores iron in liver ( parenchyma cells) for storage and bone marrow ( macrophages)
- iron stored in these two places as either ferritin or hemosiderin ( ferritin+cellular debris)
Transferrin
- transfers majority of iron to bone marrow for erythropoiesis
- Around 80% of iron is recycled from senescent red blood cells
- remaining iron delivered to other places
Stages of iron deficiency
- Storage iron depleted
- Serum iron depleted
- normocytic anemia
- microcytic/hypochromic anemia
Lab findings of iron deficiency anemia
INC: TIBC ( total iron binding capacity,transferrin conc.)
RDW(anisocytosis), AKA range in RBC size
Free erythrocytes protoporphyrin
DEC: serum iron
% saturation transferrin ( serum iron/TIBCx100)
Anemia of chronic disease
1.MC anemia seen in hospitalized patient
2. Inflammation-> inc neutrophils, granulocytes and macrophages-> secrete cytokines-> liver creates acute phase reactants such as hepcidin.
3. Hepcidin leads to iron trapping in macrophages,bone marrow,liver, and decreased iron absorption by degrading ferroportin
Cytokines suppress epo production
Anemia of chronic disease lab values
INC : ferritin
FEP ( free erythrocyte protoporphyrin)
DEC: serum iron
% saturation
TIBC