Understanding Anemia by Ed Uthman, MD University Press of Mississippi 1998 Outline

Introduction

Chapter 1. What is anemia? [Full text available online, courtesy of publisher]

• Historical perspective
• Blood
• Blood cells
• Hemoglobin
• How the body adapts to anemia
• When compensation fails: the clinically anemic patient

Chapter 2. How is anemia diagnosed?

• The clinical laboratory
• Basic hematology lab tests: the three cardinal red cell measurements
• Basic hematology lab tests: the red cell indices
• Cytometric classification of anemia
• In summary...

Chapter 3. Iron deficiency anemia

• The chemical composition of the body
• Iron
• A quick tour of the digestive system
• Iron intake -- normal and abnormal
• Iron loss -- normal and abnormal
• Clinical presentation of iron deficiency anemia
• Laboratory confirmation of IDA
• Treatment of IDA
• In summary...

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Chapter 4. Vitamin deficiency anemias

• Into the marrow
• Folate
• Vitamin B₁₂
• Summary of normal folate and B₁₂ function
• Folate deficiency
• B₁₂ deficiency
• Megaloblastic anemia: clinical presentation
• Treatment of megaloblastic anemia
• In summary...

Chapter 5. Hemolytic anemias

• Red cells: crabbed age and youth
• The diagnosis of hemolytic anemia
• Specific hemolytic anemias
• Microangiopathic hemolytic anemias
• Other traumatic causes of hemolytic anemia
• Immunohemolytic anemia
• Hypersplenism
• Other hemolytic anemias
• In summary...

Chapter 6. Inherited anemias

• Hemoglobinopathies: general
• Sickle cell disease (hemoglobin S disease)
• Hemoglobin C disease
• Hemoglobin E disease
• Thalassemias: general
• Alpha-thalassemia
• Beta-thalassemia
• G6PD deficiency
• Hereditary spherocytosis
• In summary...

Chapter 7. Miscellaneous anemias

• Aplastic anemia
• Refractory anemia
• Anemia of chronic disease
• Anemia of chronic renal failure

Appendices

• A mercifully brief note on the metric system of measurement
• A whirlwind tour of basic cell biology
• Typical normal values for common hematologic lab tests
• Bone marrow biopsy
• Mistakes doctors make with anemia
• Resources for additional information

This book is 160 pages, including 7 line illustrations, 6 appendices, glossary, and index. It is aimed at the general reader and presupposes a knowledge of biology at the high school level. The aim of the book is to gently build the reader's understanding of anemias to a fairly sophisticated level. The discourse takes unexpected turns into the circulatory, digestive, and immune systems, as well as into the fields of genetics, nutrition, and biochemistry. My hope is that readers will come away from the book with a much broader understanding of the human body than they would have expected.