a study of morphological types of anaemia in a tertiary care hospital - a two-year study

BACKGROUND In this tertiary care hospital, one of the common condition of all the patients attending the hospital is Anaemia, which is a decrease in haemoglobin content or decrease in haematocrit below the lower limit of the 95% reference range for the individual’s age and sex. The patient presents with varied symptoms of different grades, depending on the severity of anaemia, in different clinical settings. Common presenting symptoms of anaemia are generalised weakness, malaise, loss of appetite and muscular pains. METHODS All the patient samples received at the central laboratory for haemogram, complete blood counts and peripheral smear examination over the period of two years between June 2014 to May 2016 were included in the study. Anaemia cases were diagnosed depending on the criteria of the definition of anaemia, and morphological typing of anaemia was done based on the peripheral smear examination of all the cases with decreased haemoglobin level. Standard cell counter was used to estimate the Hb and other red cell indices, and corroborated with peripheral blood smear examination by standard Romanowsky stains. RESULTS A total of 810 cases of anaemia were diagnosed over the period of two years, of which morphological typing yielded 685 cases of Microcytic and hypochromic anaemia, 15 cases of Dimorphic anaemia, 22 cases of Macrocytic anaemia and 88 cases of Normocytic and normochromic anaemia. CONCLUSION Anaemia is one of the most common problems of patients attending this tertiary care hospital, and detection and morphological typing of anaemia is very helping in guiding the clinicians in diagnosis and further management of anaemias for better patient care.