Causes of anemia

| Anemia is a disease that is caused by a lack of red blood cells or decreases their ability to perform their function.

The responsible for carrying oxygen to the tissues are the red blood cells, also called erythrocytes or red blood cells. Inside it is a complex protein, hemoglobin, which is the one that carries oxygen and carbon dioxide that are exchanged in the pulmonary alveoli. Anemia is a disease that is caused by a lack of red blood cells or reduces their ability to perform their function.

What are the causes of anemia?

When there is a lack of red cells in number or their ability to perform their function decreases, we speak of anemia. It is precisely the hemoglobin the analytical parameter that is assessed to determine if there is a anemia or not.

• It is indicated that it exists anemia when the hemoglobin in the blood is less than 13 mg / dl in men or 12 mg / dl in women.
• Another parameter that is valued is the total number of red blood cells, which is considered normal between 4.2 and 5.5 million RBCs per mm3.
• The hematocrit which assesses the percentage of red blood cells found in the blood cell and whose normal values ​​range between 40% and 55% in men and between 35% and 50% in women.
• The medium corpuscular volume (VCM), which assesses the mean size of the red blood cells and whose normality values ​​range between 80 and 98 fl or cubic microns.
• The mean corpuscular hemoglobin (HCM), which measures the mean amount of hemoglobin per red cell and has normality values ​​of between 27 and 31 pg. It should be noted that these values, as well as those previously mentioned, may vary slightly depending on each laboratory.

Depending on the different causes that generate anemia, the symptoms, diagnostic methods and treatments will be different.