Special Populations with Anemia: Anemia in the Pediatric Patient

Abstract

Anemia is an important public health problem affecting approximately one-third the population of adults and children worldwide. In the pediatric population, anemia is defined as a pathological reduction in the hemoglobin or hematocrit to a value more than two standard deviations below the mean for age and sex. It can impact the quality of life by causing fatigue, lethargy, headache, reduced exercise capacity, and increased hospitalization. Iron deficiency, the most common cause of anemia in children, is also associated with poor neurodevelopmental outcomes. Anemia is a manifestation of impaired production vs. increased destruction of red blood cells, and results in three major categories of the disorder based on red blood cell size (mean corpuscular volume), microcytic, normocytic, and macrocytic. Though the main focus of this chapter is on the etiology, clinical features, and laboratory approach to causes of anemia that occur in isolation in the pediatric population, a detailed discussion on anemia of chronic diseases is also included.