RBCs Flashcards
Erythrocyte
Anucleate Biconcave and flexible – spectrin Rely on glucose for energy -90% anaerobic -> lactate 10% HMP shunt
deficiency in pyruvate kinase -> hemolysis
120 day lifespan
Anisocytosis
RBC of varying sizes
Poikilocytosis
RBC of varying shape
Polycythemia/erythrocytosis
Too many RBCs
Reticulocytes
Immature RBCs
Basophilic stippling
RNA or ribosome clumping
Lead poisoning MC cause
Thalassemias
Anemia of chronic dz
Alcohol abuse
Echinocyte – burr cell
Regular spikes on surface
Uremia, renal failure
Pyruvate kinase deficiency
Acanthocyte – spur cell
Irregularly spiked
Liver dz
-abetalipoproteinemia
Spherocytes
Lose biconcave shape
Hereditary spherocytosis
Schistocytes
Fragmented RBCs
Left over pieces chopped up
DIC, TTP – US -> microangiopathic hemolytic anemia
-blood cells sliced as forced through fibrin mesh -> sheared off
Target cells
Bulls eye “THAL” thalassemia hemoglobin C dz asplenia liver disease
Sickle cell
Sickle shaped
Sicke cell anemia
Howell-Jolly body
Basophilic remnant of nucleus – only 1 per cell
Asplenic patients – sickle cell
Heinz bodies
Oxidized hemoglobin precipitates out of solution – denatured
Splenic MO remove -> bite cell
G6PD deficiency
Many possible in a cell – “Heinz 57”
Degmacyte
Bite cell
Tear drop cell
Myelofibrosis
Elliptocyte
Hereditary elliptocytosis
“pencil cell”
“cigar cells”
Sideroblast
Nucleated red cell precursor
Granules of iron in M0
Normal in bone marrow
Ringed sideroblast
Found in disorders of heme synthesis
-unutilized iron -> excess iron granules around nucleus
abnl
found in bone marrow
Sideoblastic anemia
Defective heme synthesis
Not a dx, sign of underlying dz
Causes: Genetic conditions Drugs – seizure, INH, Chloramphenicol Chronic etOH use Myelodysplastic sn
Elevated serum iron
Elevated ferritin
Tx: B6 supplements
Erythroblastosis fetalis
Maternal Ab to fetal RBC antigen
MC ab is anti-Rh-D
-only after exposed, develops in 1st pregnancy -> subsequent pregnancies w/ problems
Rh- mom: dose anti-Rh-D Ig at 28 weeks, at any traumatic event (MVA) and w/in three days of delivery
Neonate features:
Anemia d/t hemolysis of RBC by maternal Ab
Jaundice -> possible kernicterus
Hydrops fetalis – generalized fetal edema
Intrauterine death
G6PD deficiency
Can’t go through HMP shunt -> no reduced glutathione -> hemoglobin oxidized -> Heinz body -> removed by splenic MO -> bite cells
Transfusion of incompatible blood type
-> Ab mediated type II HSR #1 cause of transfusion rxns: clerical error
