Anemia: Signs of Anemia, Symptoms of Anemia

Definition of Anemia/What is Anemia:

Anaemia may be defined as a state in which the blood haemoglobin level is below 13.5 g/dl in an adult male and below 11.5 g/dl in an adult female.

Symptoms Of Anemia:

Those problems which can be described a patient are called symptoms. For example, a patient can tell a doctor that he has a fever, headache, back pain, abdominal pain etc, All these are symptoms.
Symptoms of Anemia are given below:

• Fatigue
• A headache
• Faintness
• Breathlessness
• Angina of effort
• Palpitation
• Intermittent claudication

Signs Of Anemia:

Signs are elicited by a doctor or another person, the patient may be unaware of them, for example, a patient may tell you that he has a fever, but he may not tell you that he has yellow or pale eyes or tachycardia (rapid heart beats). So, yellow or pale eyes and tachycardia are signs.
Signs of Anemia are given below:
Non-specific Signs of Anemia:
Following signs can be present in anemia of all types

• Paler skin, conjunctiva & mucous membrane
• Tachycardia
• High volume pulse
• Ankle oedema
• Heart failure
• Systolic flow murmur

Specific Signs of Anemia:
Following signs are present in specific types of anaemia (not in all types), So these are specific signs of anaemia.

• Koilonychia (spoon-shaped nails) - in iron deficiency.
• Jaundice - in hemolytic anaemia
• Bone deformities - in thalassemia major
• Leg ulcers - in sickle cell anaemia

To treat anaemia, it is necessary to treat the cause. If it caused by iron deficiency, giving iron tablets orally will correct the anaemia, if it caused by blood loss, blood transformation will relieve the symptoms. If it is caused by folic acid deficiency, giving oral folic acid supplements will correct the anaemia and so on.