What are the dangers of severe iron deficiency anemia?

The harm of severe iron deficiency anemia is that it can seriously affect the operation of hemoglobin in our body, resulting in various anemia phenomena. It is mainly a symptom caused by the inability of the human body's iron element to meet the production of hemoglobin. The impact on the human body is very large and needs to attract the attention of patients. So, what are the hazards of severe iron deficiency anemia?

1. Light physical labor can cause fatigue and shortness of breath.

2. Causes chronic hypoxia of the brain, affecting normal cognitive ability of intelligence

3. The body's immune function is reduced, making it easy to catch a cold, have a fever, and be afraid of cold.

4. The face is sallow, the lips are pale, the body is emaciated, and the spirit is listless; in severe cases, fainting may occur.

Most of the anemia patients are women, which is mainly caused by the special physiological characteristics of women. Women regularly lose some iron every month, and pregnant women have an increased demand for iron during pregnancy. These will lead to insufficient iron supply and iron deficiency anemia. The harm of iron deficiency anemia will affect human health, because the role of iron in the human body is to ensure the continuous renewal of hemoglobin in the human body. Hemoglobin can transport oxygen and carbon dioxide metabolism, while keeping the blood active.

Therefore, women with iron deficiency anemia will feel dizzy due to insufficient oxygen supply to the human body, feel weak due to lack of oxygen, their faces will lack blood and appear pale, and their menstruation will become infrequent and pale in color. Pregnant women with iron deficiency anemia will have developmental delays in the mother's body, and their babies may have congenital anemia after birth. Postpartum women with iron deficiency anemia will have low iron content in their breast milk, and their babies will lack iron and absorb insufficient nutrients. They will also have weak constitutions and their qi and blood will recover slowly.

Diagnostic criteria

1. Mild anemia in the blood picture is normocytic normochromic anemia. Severe anemia is typical microcytic hypochromic anemia, with mean corpuscular volume (MCV) <80fl, mean corpuscular hemoglobin content (MCH) <28pg, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration MCHC <30%. The red blood cells in the blood smear are of different sizes, with smaller ones being more common and irregular in shape. A few are oval, target-shaped and irregular in shape. The lightly stained area in the center of the red blood cells is enlarged and even becomes a narrow ring. Most of the reticulocytes are normal, but may temporarily increase in case of acute blood loss.

2. Bone marrow: The bone marrow shows active cell proliferation, mainly an increase in immature red blood cells, which are smaller in size and have unbalanced cytoplasm development.

3. Serum iron: Serum iron is significantly reduced.

4. Erythrocyte protoporphyrin: Due to iron deficiency, heme synthesis is reduced. The free protoporphyrin in erythrocytes of iron deficiency anemia is 500 μg/L (normal is 200-400 μg/L).

5. Microcytic hypochromic anemia: hemoglobin (Hb) is less than 120g/L for men and less than 110g/L for women; MCV is less than 80fl, MCH is less than 26pg, and MCHC is less than 0.31.

6. There are clear causes and clinical manifestations of iron deficiency.

7. Serum iron is less than 10.7 μmol/L (60 μg/dl), and total iron binding capacity is greater than 64.44 μgmol/L (360 g/dl).

Severe iron deficiency anemia has a great impact on the patient's body, so patients should receive timely treatment in the early stages to prevent further deterioration of anemia. Generally, patients with severe anemia can take some drugs to treat anemia, which can increase the amount of hemoglobin in the body, and the effect is very good.