Title: Clinical Profile of Anemia in Elderly population
Authors: Dr Pradnya Diggikar, Dr P.K.Satpathy, Dr Kanishka Jain, Dr Puneet Bhuwania, Dr Deepak Baldania, Dr T.Venu Babu, Dr Anuja Patil, Dr Prafull Chahjjed
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v3i9.57
Background:-Anemia is a common concern in older people and can have significant morbidity and mortality. Because anemia is a sign, not a diagnosis, an evaluation is almost always warranted to identify the underlying cause Methods:- Cross sectional hospital based study was carried out, of elderly patients with history of anemia for 1 yrs duration. Each patient was screened for anemia. Standard protocols were used to make diagnosis of anemia. Results:Out of 100 elderly anemic patients, 55 were females and 45 were males. 28 patients had microcytic anemia, 62 patients had normocytic anemia. 6 patients had macrocytic anemia. Two patients who had pancytopenia picture and two patients had dimorphic picture. Normocytic anemia was the most common blood picture in patients having an underlying malignancy. Microcytic anemia was the next common picture, Conclusions:Failure to evaluate anemia in elderly could lead to delayed diagnosis of potentially treatable conditions. Nonspecific symptoms like fatigue and weakness should not be ignored in the geriatric population as they could be important pointers towards presence of anemia in these patients. An effort should always be made to reach etiological diagnosis before instituting specific therapy. 1. DacieJ.V. and Lewis S.M. Practical Haematology.200610th Edition Churchill livingstone.Edinburg. 2. World Health Organisation Tech Rep Ser 580, 1975 3. AniaLafuente BJ, Fernandez-Burriel Tercero M, Suarez Al- menara JL, Betancort Mastrangelo CC, Guerra Hernandez L (2001) Anemia and functional capacity at admission in a geriatric home. An Med Interna18(1):9–12 4. World Health Organization. Definition of an older or elderly person. http://www.who.int/healthinfo/survey/ageingdefnolder/en/ index.html. Retrieved August 29, 2010 5. Mary Lynn R, Sutin D (2003) Blood disorders and their man- agement in old age. In: Geriatric medicine and gerontology. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburg, pp 1229–1230 6. Davenport J (1996) Macrocytic anemia. Am Fam Physician 53(1):155–162 7. Varat M, Adolph R, Fowler N (1972) Cardiovascular effects of anemia. Am Heart J 83:415–426 8. Mehta BC (1999) Iron deficiency anemia. In: Shah S, Anand M (eds) API textbook of medicine, 6th edn. Association of Physicians of India, Mumbai 9. Characteristics of Anemia in Elderly: A Hospital Based Study in South India 10. An Etiologic Profile of Anemia in 405 Geriatric Patients TabeaGeiselAnemia. 2014; 2014: 932486. 11. Das KV. Study of pattern of anemia in hospital inpatients at the medical college hospital , Trivandrum Indian J. of Med Science 1992; 485: 48 12. Douglas Smith. Anemia in the Elderly University of WisconscinAm Fam Physician. 2000 Oct 1;62(7):1565-1572.Abstract
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