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Haemolytic Anaemia: Causes and Treatment

Description

This is a rather nasty illness and for the people that have this disease they will know just how draining and tough it can be to live with this illness inside them. Haemolytic anaemia is when your own blood has a rather inadequate amount of red blood cells in it. This is caused by your body destroying other red blood cells. Your body cannot keep up with the destruction and your bone marrow cannot produce enough red blood cells to keep the numbers equal. When the amount of destruction of the red blood cells outpaces the production of the red blood cells or if the bone marrow can no longer maintain production then you will fall victim to the illness anaemia. If the patient has a severe form of Haemolytic anaemia then this illness can be life threatening. The reason for the destruction of these red blood cells is due to an antibody sticking to the red blood cells. The body notices that something unusual is sticking to the red blood cells and then tells the body’s immune system to start up and to attack this unusual item in your body. When the immune system starts up it destroys the red blood cells not knowing that it is red blood cells that it is destroying but thinking that it is a illness or virus.

Symptoms of Haemolytic anaemia

There are a couple of symptoms that will show up when you have fallen victim to Haemolytic anaemia. Anaemia will be present in your body when you have fallen victim to this illness, fatigue will also make you feel very drowsy and you will find it hard to do simple things without feeling very tired and just physically drained. There have also been some cases of heart failure in the more severe cases of Haemolytic anaemia so it is very important that you get this illness looked at by your doctor so that they can make the correct diagnosis and then correctly treat you with whatever you need in order for you to get better. If you are a frequent drug user then it is likely that you will contract this disease and you should also look out for the symptoms although the most obvious and best thing to do would be to stop taking the drugs altogether and then the chances of you contracting this disease will be less likely then if you do stay on the drugs.

Causes of Haemolytic anaemia

There are causes to this illness and one of these causes is due to having abnormal red blood cells inside your body. It has been known for snake venom and also malaria to cause this illness in people. But what is more worrying is that this illness has been known to be hereditary so if you do have this illness then you will pass it on to any children that you may have in the future. A GP6D deficiency will also lead to this illness being in your blood.

Diagnosis for Haemolytic anaemia

There are a lot of ways for your doctor to see if you have contracted this disease and one of these ways is to perform a blood smear test and this will determine if you have Haemolytic anaemia. When the blood smear is looked at under a microscope they will check to see if the red blood cells are smaller and rounder as a result of the immune system attacking the red blood cells. Also if there are actually fragments of the red blood cells on the blood smear then that is also a sure sign to say that this patient does have Haemolytic anaemia there will be fragments also because of the immune system attacking the red blood cells and destroying them. There is also bilirubin in the blood and if this is at elevated levels then this is also a sign to show that the patient will have Haemolytic anaemia. There are also other levels in your blood that should not be high unless of course you have this illness in you.

Summary of Haemolytic anaemia

Haemolytic anaemia is a serious illness and any destruction of red blood cells is never good for the body. In an average person less then 1% of red blood cells that are produced in a single day will die. But for people with this illness it seems that over 50% of their red blood cells will die because of their illness. This is severe and if you are showing any symptoms of this illness then you have to see your doctor immediately so that a proper diagnosis can be made.

Hope this article will provide you information about haemolytic anaemia.

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