Anaemia: Prevention and Management

What is Anaemia?

• Anaemia is characterized by a deficiency in healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin.
• Hemoglobin is the iron-rich protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body.

Severity of Anaemia

• Anaemia can be graded as mild, moderate, and severe based on haemoglobin value.

General Symptoms of Anaemia

• Tiredness
• Easy fatigability
• Muscular weakness
• Lethargy
• Headache
• Additional symptoms in older patients: cardiac failure, angina pectoris, confusion, and visual disturbances

Signs of Anaemia

• Pallor (in skin)
• CVS: collapsing pulse, tachycardia
• CNS: faintness, dizziness, numbness
• Ocular manifestation: hemorrhages
• Menstrual disturbances
• Renal system
• Gastrointestinal system: anorexia, nausea, weight loss

Management of Anaemia

• Blood transfusion: a common, safe medical procedure to replace blood lost through surgery or injury, or to provide blood if the body is not making it properly.
• Blood transfusions are given through an intravenous (IV) line inserted in a blood vessel.

Bone Marrow Transplant

• Also called hematopoietic stem cell transplant
• Replaces faulty blood-forming stem cells with healthy cells
• Usually performed in a hospital
• Requires hospital stay of 1-2 weeks before the transplant to prepare
• Involves special medicines and possibly radiation to destroy abnormal stem cells and weaken the immune system to prevent rejection of donor cells

Treatment of Anaemia

Sideroblastic Anaemia

• Treatment primarily involves removal of offending agent
• No definite treatment available for hereditary or idiopathic types of sideroblastic anaemia
• Pyridoxine is administered routinely to all types of sideroblastic anaemia.