Glossary of Medical and Health Terms

Anaemia (or Anemia)

Anaemia (or anemia) is a deficiency of red blood cells (RBCs) and/or haemoglobin. This results in a reduced ability of blood to transfer oxygen to the tissues, causing tissue hypoxia. Since all human cells depend on oxygen for survival, varying degrees of anaemia can have a wide range of clinical consequences. Haemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein in the red blood cells) has to be present to ensure adequate oxygenation of all tissues and organs. The three main classes of anaemia include excessive blood loss (acutely such as a hemorrhage or chronically through low-volume loss), excessive blood cell destruction (hemolysis) or deficient red blood cell production (ineffective hematopoiesis).

Anaemia is the most common disorder of the blood. There are several kinds of anaemia, produced by a variety of underlying causes. Anaemia can be classified in a variety of ways, based on the morphology of RBCs, underlying etiologic mechanisms, and discernible clinical spectra, to mention a few.

There are two major approaches of classifying anemias, the "kinetic" approach, which involves evaluating production, destruction and loss, and the "morphologic" approach, which groups anaemia by red blood cell size. The morphologic approach uses a quickly available and cheap lab test as its starting point (the MCV). On the other hand, focusing early on the question of production may allow the clinician more rapidly to expose cases where multiple causes of anaemia coexist.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemia

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