The study of blood, along with diseases that affect it, is known as hematology in medical education. You are sure to encounter hematological disorders as you progress in medical school; therefore, it would be only fitting that you familiarize yourself with key concepts on them as early as possible in the game. Here follows a blog post pointing out some of the key hematological disorders one should be familiar with.
Anemias
Anemia represents the most frequent of all diseases of the blood, or a condition of a red blood cells or hemoglobin abnormality. More than anything else, it’s an expression of a process of pathology of an illness, it is not an illness, but rather describes a pathological condition underlying an illness. Think of the red blood cell as that miniature delivery truck whose cargo includes oxygen transported to the body. Should these trucks be too few or carry too small, tissues are underoxygenated, and a person becomes fatigued, weak, and breathless.
There are many anemias, each caused by something different:
Iron Deficiency Anemia: This is the most common form and is usually due to a diet lacking adequate amounts of iron or to blood loss-through heavy menstrual periods, gastrointestinal bleeding or through malabsorption. Again, iron is a critical component of hemoglobin.
Vitamin B12 and Folates: It is further linked to the process that involves the producing facility of red blood cells. An individual could potentially suffer due to such condition following poor diets that are often blended with issues during absorption, whereas such diseases in turn result to the causes that lead towards Pernicious Anemia besides affecting other medical illnesses.
Anemia of Chronic Disease: Often, it is an acquired condition associated with chronic illnesses, such as infection, autoimmune, or kidney. The disease does seem to influence the production of red blood cells in some enigmatic way.
Aplastic anemia: It is one of the dangerous and rare disease conditions in which the bone marrow fails to create adequate blood components, which make up three individual items: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.
Hemolytic Anemias: It occurs due to the rate of destruction of RBC being higher than the rate of its formation. Most hemolytic anemias are inherited including sickle cell anemia and thalassemia.
Leukemias: Also called blood cancer. Leukemias are characterized by the overgrowth of abnormal white blood cells in blood. There are two forms: acute and chronic. The classification into myeloid and lymphoid refers to the specific white blood cell that is involved in each type. It is very helpful to know the classification of leukemias:
AML: It’s very fast-moving. Generally, it is the myeloid cell cancer.
ALL: This is another fast-moving type of cancer of the Lymphoid Cell
CML: In this case, myeloid cells are moving at a slow pace.
CLL: It is proceeding at a pace so slow, another type of Lymphoid cells cancer
Lymphomas: Those are the cancers of the lymphatic system. They are produced by the lymphocytes.
There are two classifications: Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Platelet Disorders:
Thrombocytopenia: a condition of an extremely low number of platelets present within the blood that are exposed to risk by hemorrhage. Its causes have become very well known and can encompass, besides some drugs, conditions such as autoimmune conditions or infections.
Thrombocytosis: This is an elevated number of platelets. It increases the risk for the patient to suffer from thrombosis.
Deep Vein Thrombosis, DVT: blood clots in deep veins; large thrombotic events are lower limb.
Pulmonary Embolism (PE): This may be lethal since the clot in the bloodstream is carried to the lungs and it blocks normal blood flow
Myeloproliferative Neoplasms: Bone Marrow Overdrive
Myeloproliferative neoplasms, also abbreviated as MPNs, are a disease that causes disorders in forming blood cells due to an overactive effect from the bone marrow. Of which are included:
Polycythemia Vera: This disorder results from red blood cell increase in production
Essential Thrombocythemia: Overproduction of platelets causes it.
Primary Myelofibrosis: Replacing bone marrow with fibrous tissue leads to this.
Conclusion
Any medical student would simply learn how to understand hematological disorders, as many of these are life-threatening and require prompt diagnosis and management. The key conditions encountered include: Anemia Sickle Cell Disease, Thalassemia, Hemophilia, Leukemia, Polycythemia vera and thromboembolic disorders. Remember as you progress through your medical education and clinical rotations that the blood is an enormously complex and essential organ, and a good understanding of hematology will make you a better clinician, better able to identify and manage these potentially devastating disorders.
