Question

Case Scenario: A 16-year-old female presents at the clinic with extreme fatigue and shortness of breath while playing volleyball. She has been in good health until about six months ago. During these six months, she has had several colds and flu events where she was unable to do normal activities. Her mother reports she spends a great deal of time sleeping, sometimes twelve hours, and complains of fatigue when she awakens. She is pale and appears to have little energy. The doctor suspects iron deficiency anemia (IDA).

1. Question: What will the doctor likely do first for this young woman? Support your answer using specific facts, data, examples, and other information drawn from the textbook and at least one other supplemental source.

Answer 1

Iron deficiency anemia is the most common type of anemia and it occurs when your body doesn't have enough mineral iron .Your body needs enough iron to make heamoglobin when there is no enough iron in your blood stream the rest of your body cannot get amount of oxygen needed

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS:-

general fatigue

weakness

paleskin

shortness of breath

dizziness

a tingling and crawling feeling in legs

Tongue swelling an soreness

cold hand and feet

fast or irregular heart beat

brittle nails

headache

CAUSES:-

in adequate iron intake,

pregnancy or blood loss due to menstruation

internal bleeding

innability to absorb iron

endometriosis

RISK FACTOR :-

woman of child bearing age

pregnant women

people with poor diet

people who donate blood frequently

infants and children especially those born prematurely

vegitarians who don't replace meet with another iron rich food

DIAGNOSIS :-

A doctor can diagnose anemia with blood test

complete blood test:- CBC is the first test a doctor will use to diagnose anemia,CBC measures the amount of all components in the blood including Rbc ,wbc,haemoglobin,hematocrit,platelets the information needed to diagnose iron deficiency anemia from CBC are the heamatocrit level the hemoglobin level the size of the rbc

A normal hematocrit range is 34.9 to 44.5%for adult women and 38.8to 50%for adult man

Normal hemoglobin 12 to 15.5 gm / dl for adult woman,13.5to17.5gm/dl for adult man

In iron deficiency anemia the hematocrit and hemoglobin level are low also rbc s are usually smaller in size than normal.

There are various studies and journals on iron deficiency anemia among adolescent girls

prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in adolescent girls in a tertiary care hospital in this study about 50%of over all prevalence of anemia in adolescent girls of 10 to 19 years ,severity of anemia is more in 10 to 14 years of age group in comparison to 15 to 19 years age group