Recurrent anaemia: what might be the issue

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In our today's environment I have come to understand that blood transfusion rate has increased beyond normal. Patients are being transfused on daily bases because of one ailment or the other.

As of today, the diseases that amount to decrease in blood volume in our various hospital has been increasing on daily bases.

I was on duty last week in the laboratory. Through out that last week was from one transfusion to the other. At a point I started asking myself questions about this high rate of transfusion. At first I taught it was as a result of prolong ailment but I was totally surprise when I get to see different things that might result to decrease in blood volume.

Today I will be discussing on the causes of decrease in blood volume and why we need to readjust some of our ways of living.

bone marrow disorders

Disorders of the bone marrow is a trending disease which is in existence that people don't really know. I never knew this disease exit until I was able to see a patient undergoing blood transfusion because of bone marrow disorder. The patient mother frequent hospital most often just to check the childs pcv to know if the blood level has gone down in order to commence blood transfusion. The most annoying thing about this disorder is that it can never be resolved without bone marrow transplant. For this reason people try as much as possible to manage the disorder since most of them cannot afford bone marrow transplant.

Before will talk about this disorder, I think is better to know what bone marrow is and how it is related to blood.

Bone marrow simply means a spongy tissue found in between some bones. This bones includes thigh and hip bones. Bone marrow is a point where blood production takes place. In children haemopoiesis which is blood production takes place in the long bone of the body. While in adult it occurs in the hips, skull, breastbone and the ribs. This bone marrow can be divided into two different sections which are red and yellow bone marrow. The red one is known as myeloid tissue while the yellow one is called fatty tissue.

Bone marrow makes about 220 billionnew cells every single day. These cells includes white blood cells, red blood cells, platelets etc. In bone marrow there are two stem cells. This stem cells are embedded in red and yellow bone marrow.

Red bone marrow are very delicate and fibrous in nature which contains haematopoietic stem cells which are the blood forming cells. The yellow bone marrow contains the mesenchymal cells that helps to produce cartilage, fat and bone. This haematopoietic stem cells are then being differentiated into myeloid and lymphoid lineages which gives rise to monocytes, macrophages, basophils, eosinophils, erythrocytes, dendritic cells, platelets and megakaryocytes.

During bone marrow transplant it is this stem cell that are needed which can constantly divide and produce new ones. When there is an issue or disorder of the bone marrow, the stem cells no longer function very well. Because of this, the bone marrow cannot be able to produce more blood cells therefore leading to decrease in blood volume.

Remember our body is meant to get rid of red blood cell in every 120 days in other to produce new ones. When new ones are impeded from producing it simply means there is problem in the bone marrow. When this happens the body cannot be able to replenish new ones. For this reason the persons blood volume starts going down which eventually leads to aplastic anaemia.

Aplastic anaemia is a situation where your body cannot be able to produce new blood cells. This condition can affect every individual including children. The symptoms of this condition are fatigue, shortness of breath,pale skin and many others.

This condition happens when the body stem cell are damaged, which makes it unable to produce new blood cells. Aplastic anaemia can also be called autoimmune related disease as it is caused by the immune system attacking the stem cells.

At this point you must have understood what bone marrow is and its diseases. Let's quickly look at some of the factors that causes bone marrow diseases.
These factors includes radiation, chemotherapy, toxic chemicals, some drugs, pregnancy and many others.

Since we have talked much on bone marrow and its disorder as one of the leading factor of decrease in blood volume, let us also look into other things that can cause reduction in blood volume.

That brings us to what we call

sickle cell anaemia

Sickle cell anaemia is an inherited disorder of the red blood cell. It is an indication of faulty haemoglobin in the body. Haemoglobin is a blood pigment which helps to carry oxygen from one part of the body to the other. In sickle cell patient haemoglobin forms a stiff rod within the red blood cells causing change in the shape of the red blood cells to sickle shape.

The sickle cell are not flexible and cannot be able to change shape easily. This results to occlusion of the blood vessel. This cells last between the interval of 10 to 20 days why in a normal person it takes 120 days. Because of this reason the body finds it difficult to produce the number of blood needed for the body to work efficiently.

Sickle cell anaemia is caused by inheriting two sickle gene from the parents. After delivery the signs of the disease sets in causing decrease in blood volume, painful swelling of the hand, fatigue, yellow colour of the skin and many other.

in conclusion

Looking out in some of the things that can cause decrease in blood. You will be able to understand that there are some external factors that can lead to this disease.
My main purpose of writing this article is to create awareness for some of us that doesn't know much about this and to educate us on the ways which we can minimize the rate of this disease.

References
aplastic anaemia
All you need to know about bone marrow
Formation of Blood Cells
The bone marrow and blood formation
Sickle Cell Disease
What Is Bone Marrow Cancer


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