RBC disorders (Pathoma Robbins) Flashcards
(91 cards)
P: What is the basic principle of anemia?
Reduction in circulating RBC mass
P: What does anemia present with?
Signs and symptoms of hypoxia:
- weakness, fatigue, dyspnea
- pale conjunctiva and skin
- headache and lightheadedness
- Angina, especially with preexisting CAD
P: _____, _____, _____ are used as ______ for RBC mass, which is difficult to measure
Hb, hematocrit, RBC count;
surrogates
P: How is anemia defined in males and females? What are the normal Hb counts in men and women?
Men: Hb <12.5 g/dL
Normal men: 13.5-17.5
Normal women: 12.5-16.0
P: Based on mean corpuscular volume…
anemia can be classified as microcytic (100)
P: How is microcytic anemia defined? What is it due to?
Anemia with MCV < 80 um3;
due to decreased production of hemoglobin (RBC progenitor cells in the bone marrow are large and normally divide multipe times to produce smaller mature cells (80-100 = MCV), but microcytosis is due to an “extra” division which occurs to maintain Hb concentration)
P: Hb is made of…;
Heme and globin
P: What is heme made of? Decrease in what components leads to microcytic anemia?
Protoporphyrin and iron; microcytic anemia
P: What do microcytic anemias include?
- Iron deficiency anemia
- Anemia of chronic disease
- Sideroblastic anemia
- Thalassemia
P: What is iron deficiency anemia due to? It is the most ____ type of anemia
Iron goes down, heme then goes down, Hb goes down, hence the microcytic anemia; common (lack of iron is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world, affecting roughly 1/3 of world’s population)
P: Iron is consumed in ____ and _____ forms; write out the path of what happens to the iron once consumed
heme (meat-derived ) and non-heme (vegetable-derived);
- Absorption occurs in duodenum; enterocytes have heme and non-heme (DMT1) transporters; the heme form is more readily absorbed
- Enterocytes transport iron across the cell membrane into blood via ferroportin
- Transferrin transports iron in the blood and delivers it to liver and bone marrow macrophages for storage
- Stored IC iron is bound to ferritin, which prevents iron from forming free radicals via the Fenton reaction
P: List the lab measurements of iron status
- Serum iron (measure iron in blood)
- TIBC (measure of transferrin molecules in the blood)
- % saturation (percentage of transferrin molecules that are bound by iron, normal is 33%)
- Serum ferritin (reflects iron stores in macrophages and liver)
P: Iron deficiency is usually caused by _____ or _____
dietary lack; blood loss;
- infants: breast-feeding (human milk is low in iron)
- Children (poor diet)
- Adults (20-50 years): peptic ulcer disease in males and menorrhagia or pregnancy in females
- Elderly: colon polyps/carcinoma in the Western world; hookworm in the developing world (Ancylostoma and Necator)
- Other causes include malnutrition, malabsorption, and gastrectomy (since acid aids iron absorption by maintaining the Fe2+ state, which is more readily absorbed than Fe3+)
P: Stages of iron deficiency:
- Storage iron is depleted (decreased ferritin, more TIBC)
- Serum iron delpleted (decreased serum Fe and %sat)
- Normocytic anemia (bone makes fewer but normal-sized RBC’s)
- Microcytic, hypochromic anemia (bone marrow makes smaller AND fewer RBCs)
P: Clinical features of iron deficiency include:
anemia, koilonychia, pica
P: Lab findings of iron deficiency anemia include:
- Microcytic, hypochromic RBCs with increased red cell distribution width
- decreased ferritin, increased TIBC, decreased serum iron, decreased % sat
- Increased free erythrocyte protoporphyrin (FEP)
P: What does treatment of IDA include?
supplemental iron (ferrous sulfate)
P: Plummer-Vinson syndrome is
iron deficiency anemia with esophageal web and atrophic glossitis, presenting as anemia, dysphagia, beefy-red tongue
P: Anemia of chronic disease is associated with
chronic inflammation (endocarditis or autoimmune conditions) or cancer; most common type of anemia in hospitalized patients
P: Chronic disease anemia results in
production of acute phase reactants from the liver, like hepcidin (this sequesters iron in storage sites by limiting iron transfer from macrophages to erythroid precursors and suppressing EPO production, aiming to prevent bacteria from accessing iron)
P: What causes anemia of chronic disease?
Decreased available iron, decreased heme, decreased Hb, microcytic anemia!!
P: Lab findings for anemia of chronic disease include
increased ferritin, decreased TIBC, decreased serum iron, decreased % saturation;
Increased free erythrocyte protoporphyrin
P: Treatment of anemia of chronic disease includes
addressing the underlying cause
P: sideroblastic anemia is due to
defective protoporphyrin synthesis: decreased protoporphyrin leads to decreased heme, decreased Hb, microcytic anemia