Question

Susan finally visits her physician after feeling tired, dizzy, nauseous, and feverish for a long time. During her physical, the doctor draws whole blood to do a complete blood count and white cell differential.

1. How might this help in making a diagnosis?
2. Describe what basophils, eosinophils, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes indicate/what could be causing abnormal results?
3. What are the characteristics of anemia?
4. What are different types of anemia and the causes of their deficiencies?
5. People who need blood transfused after injury are blood-typed before being transfused. Both the recipients and donors are tested to be certain their blood is compatible. This is especially important for the recipient. Why?

Answer 1

1. A complete blood count will give information about the basic parameters of blood that are Hb, WBC , Platelets ,,MCV ,ESR ,Differential WBC like neutrophils ,eosio, lymphocytes etc . In this case ,this investigation would help to detect the cause behind fever that is infection by assessing the WBC fatigue might due to low Hb etc and further assessment will be done by conducting investigation such as culture and sensitivity etc to diagnose the condition.

2. Different types of WBC :-

Monocytes. They have a longer lifespan than many white blood cells and help to break down bacteria.

Lymphocytes. They create antibodies to defend against bacteria, viruses, and other potentially harmful invaders.

Neutrophils. They kill and digest bacteria and fungi. They are the most numerous type of white blood cell and your first line of defense when infection strikes.

Basophils. These small cells appear to sound an alarm when infectious agents invade your blood. They secrete chemicals such as histamine, a marker of allergic disease, that help control the body's immune response.

Eosinophils. They attack and kill parasites, destroy cancer cells, and help with allergic responses

High counts of any of the above indicates to be abnormal and presence of infection

3. The characteristics of Anemia are :-

- not a specific disease

- manifestation of a pathological process

- identified and classified by laboratory diagnosis

4. Anemia is the decrease in the number of erythrocytes or RBC's , quantity of hemoglobin ,and volume of hematocrit .

It is different types :-

- Iron deficiency anemia is the type of Anemia which results due to insufficient iron to produce hemoglobin

- Pernicious Anemia is lack of mature erythrocytes caused by inability to absorb vitamin B12 in the body .

- Sickle cell anemia is the type of anemia in which the red blood cells become sickle shaped due to deficiency of oxygen and blocks the arteries and impede blood flow

- Aplastic Anemia is the type of anemia characterized by absence of all formed blood elements caused by the failure of blood cell production in the bone marrow

- Hemorrhagic Anemia is a type of anemia caused due to loss of blood

# Before transfusion.of blood or any blood products to an recipient , blood grouping and cross matching are done to detect ABO incompatibilities between donor and recipient and to prevent transfusion reaction by detecting antibodies in recipient's serum .