NU 506 Tracy Hill Case Study 3 Anemia Henry is 77 years old and lives with his daughter and son-in-law. He has chronic renal failure, but likes to get out whenever he can to work in his daughter’s back yard garden. Over the last few months he began to go outside less often. He said he was feeling unusually tired and he was running out of breath doing the simplest of tasks. He also said his head ached and he often felt dizzy. His daughter took him to his doctor, who performed a complete physical examination and diagnosed Henry with anemia. 1. From what you know of Henry’s history, what type of anemia do you suspect he has? Explain your answer, and include a brief description of how Henry’s red blood cells would appear on a peripheral blood smear. I would suspect Henry to have Chronic Disease Anemia, as it is the most profound hematologic alteration that accompanies chronic kidney disease (Porth, p. 864). Chronic renal failure almost always results in anemia, primarily because of a deficiency in erythropoietin. Persons with end stage kidney disease often are anemic because of an inability of the kidneys to produce erythropoietin. This is usually managed by the administration of recombinant erythropoietin produced through DNA technology, to stimulate erythropoiesis. 2. Describe the physiological basis that would explain why Henry’s anemia would cause him to have the symptoms he is experiencing. When untreated, anemia causes or contributes to weakness, fatigue, depression, insomnia, and decreased cognitive function. The kidneys are the primary site for the production of the hormone erythropoietin, which controls red blood cell production (Porth, p. 864). Between 89-95% of erythropoietin is formed in the kidneys. In renal failure, erythropoietin production usually is insufficient to stimulate adequate red blood cell production by the bone marrow. On cardiovascular function, the anemia of renal failure produces a decrease in blood viscosity which exacerbates peripheral vasodilation and contributes to decreased vascular resistance. It also causes a compensatory increase in heart rate, which causes a compensatory increase in cardiac output to maintain tissue perfusion (Porth, p. 857). Anemia also limits myocardial oxygen supply, esp. if someone has heart disease, which leads to angina and other ischemic events. These physiologic events can cause symptoms of feeling tired and weak, short of breath, and dizzy as well. 3. Predict the cellular adaptations erythrocytes undergo when chronic hypoxia is present. How would this be evident on an oxygen-hemoglobin dissociation curve? Anemia may contribute to the progression of chronic kidney disease by subjecting the functioning nephrons that remain to increased hypoxic and oxidative stress. Severe anemia can cause the oxygen dissociation curve to shift to the right, indicating that the tissue PO2 is greater for any given level of hemoglobin saturation and represents reduced affinity of the hemoglobin for oxygen at any given PO2 (Porth, p. 662). An anemic person may have a normal PO2 and hemoglobin saturation level but decreased oxygen content because of the lower amount of hemoglobin for binding oxygen (Porth, p. 663).