Anaemia is the most common blood disorder globally, is a major underlying cause of death among children and pregnant women in the developing world, and because it is most prevalent in the poorest communities, represents a useful marker of social and economic marginalization [1–3]. The aetiology of anaemia is often multi-factorial including nutritional deficiencies, parasitic and inflammatory di...

Lethargy is a frequent and important clinical feature of anaemia; however, it does not absolutely correlate with the severity of anaemia. Manganese is efficiently absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract via divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1), which is also responsible for iron transport. DMT1 is upregulated in iron deficiency (ID). Increased manganese concentrations are reported in ID anae...

BACKGROUND Prescribing psychotropic drugs in clients with severe anaemia has rarely been reported before. CASE PRESENTATION A 36 year old man with severe anaemia was prescribed divalproex sodium 250 mg daily for mood swings. He had unbearable side effects and had to discontinue the medication in nine days. CONCLUSION Divalproex sodium may result in severe side effects in clients with severe...

Anaemia is a common complication associated with inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis). It substantially impairs quality of life, makes therapy more complicated, and increases costs of treatment. It seems that anaemia therapy is suboptimal in this group of patients in the Polish population. The recommendations presented below provide iron deficiency anaemia manage...

OBJECTIVE Anaemia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is prototypical of the chronic disease type and is often neglected in clinical practice. We studied anaemia in relation to disease activity, medications and radiographic progression. METHODS Data were collected between 1996 and 2007 over a mean follow-up of 2.2 years. Anaemia was defined according to WHO (♀ haemoglobin<12 g/dl, ♂: haemoglobin<13 ...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is uncommon in individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) because of availability of an adequate iron source potentially from increased red cell turnover and from blood transfusions. Also, iron deficiency anaemia can often go unnoticed because the sickle cell disease patients are already anaemic. Iron deficiency in sickle cell patients may re...

BACKGROUND Numerous published studies have explored associations between anaemia and adverse outcomes after surgery. However, there are no evidence syntheses describing the impact of preoperative anaemia on postoperative outcomes. METHODS A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies exploring associations between preoperative anaemia and postoperative outcomes was performed....

Obesity-induced chronic inflammation leads to activation of the immune system that causes alterations of iron homeostasis including hypoferraemia, iron-restricted erythropoiesis, and finally mild-to-moderate anaemia. Thus, preoperative anaemia and iron deficiency are common among obese patients scheduled for bariatric surgery (BS). Assessment of patients should include a complete haematological...

OBJECTIVE To study the prevalence of different causes of anaemia in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and their associations with immunological and clinical parameters and to evaluate the contribution of erythropoietin (Epo) and anti-erythropoietin (anti-Epo) autoantibodies to the development of SLE anaemia. METHODS 132 SLE patients with anaemia (defined as haemoglobin of 12 g/...

BACKGROUND Undernutrition and anaemia remains to be a major public health problem in many developing countries, where they mostly affect children. Intestinal parasitic infections are known to affect both growth and haemoglobin levels. Much has been reported on the impact of geohelminths on anaemia and undernutrition, leaving that of Schistosoma mansoni not well studied. Therefore this study int...