Anemia Due to Chronic Disease Video

Video at a Glance

• Anemia of inflammation may be broken down into two subtypes, anemia of chronic disease and anemia of critical illness, though their pathophysiology is similar enough to study as one entity.
• Anemia of inflammation occurs when an illness causes systemic inflammation, such as an infection, malignancy, autoimmune disorder, burns, trauma, and major surgery.
• Inflammation causes the body to release cytokines, and the cytokines implicated in this disease are IL-1, IL-6, TNF, and INF.
• Cytokine release has three effects. It causes bone marrow suppression of red blood cells, forces erythrocytes to lyse, causing autolysis or apoptosis of red blood cells, and inspires microphages in the spleen to take up and store iron in the form of ferritin.
• These effects cause increased destruction of red blood cells, decreased production of red blood cells, and decreased iron availability.
• To diagnose, rescuers should check the patient’s history to see if they have chronic or acute inflammation and take laboratory studies to look for decreased red blood cell count or increased ferritin levels.