Aplastic Anemia Causes, Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention
The Understanding of Aplastic Anemia
Aplastic anemia is a blood disorder that occurs when the bone marrow stops producing new blood cells, either red blood cells, platelets, or white blood. In the human body, blood cells have different roles. Red blood cells act as a carrier of oxygen throughout the body, white blood cells fight against infection, while platelets have a function to prevent bleeding.
Aplastic anemia is a rare disease which can occur in men and women in all ages. However, this disorder is more frequently found in adults in their 20s and elderly who live in developing countries. Someone experiencing aplastic anemia often feels limp, powerless, and is at risk of experiencing infection and excessive bleeding.
Aplastic anemia can happen gradually in weeks or months. This condition can also appear unexpectedly. If aplastic anemia occurs in a person with very low blood levels, these conditions can be fatal and have a life-threatening impact.
Based on the cause, aplastic anemia can be divided into two types, namely:
Hereditary Aplastic Anemia.
This condition is caused by genetic abnormalities that occur more frequently in children and adolescents. The sufferer of this disease also has a risk of other diseases, such as leukemia.
Non-hereditary Aplastic Anemia.
This condition frequently occurs in adults because the immune system is compromised. The disruption could be caused by radiation or chemotherapy in the treatment of cancer, chemical toxins, HIV virus or Epstein-Barr, or because of the influence of certain treatments.
Symptoms Of Aplastic Anemia
Aplastic anemia symptoms depend on the type of blood cell that the level is low. If red blood cells are low, a person may experience difficulty in breathing, fatigue, dizziness, headache, chest pain, irregular heartbeat, as well as the face becomes pale.
If the white blood cells are low, someone will be prone to infections and fever. If the platelets are below the normal range, one can easily experience bleeding, bruises, skin rashes, nosebleeds, and bleeding gums.
The Causes of Aplastic Anemia
Aplastic anemia occurs due to the damage on the bone marrow, thus causing the production of blood cells slows down or declines. This damage is very dangerous because the bone marrow plays a major role in generating stem cells which produce red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.
There are several factors that can damage the bone marrow such as:
Autoimmune disorders. This disorder causes the immune system to attack healthy cells, including stem cells in the bone marrow.
Radiation and chemotherapy. Two types of treatment aim to kill cancer cells but sometimes these treatments also damage the healthy cells.
Virus infection. Aplastic anemia can occur because of the influence of several types of viruses, such as hepatitis, Epstein-Barr, cytomegalovirus, parvovirus B19, and HIV.
Use of certain drugs. Aplastic anemia can be affected by some type of antibiotic drugs and medicines used to cope with rheumatoid arthritis.
Exposure to toxic chemicals. Exposure to toxic chemicals that are commonly used in pesticides and insecticides can trigger the onset of aplastic anemia, especially if the exposure occurs on an ongoing basis.
Pregnancy. In pregnant women, aplastic anemia can appear due to the influence of autoimmune disorders, in which the body's immune system will attack the bone marrow during pregnancy.
The Diagnosis of Aplastic Anemia
A doctor will diagnose aplastic anemia through physical examination, symptoms experienced, as well as a review of family health history of the patient. In addition, the doctor will do blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy.
Here is the explanations:
Blood tests. In normal conditions, the levels of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets are in a certain boundaries. Someone is allegedly anemic aplastic if one of the three blood cells or three of them are below the normal range.
A bone marrow biopsy. At this stage, the doctor will take a sample of bone marrow from the bones of the pelvis for examination with a microscope. Anemia aplastic sufferer’s bone marrow only contains a little bit of blood cells.
Treatment of Aplastic Anemia
The type of treatment against aplastic anemia depends on the patient's condition and the level of severity. These are the kinds of treatment on aplastic anemia:
Antibiotic drugs. Aplastic anemia sufferers often have trouble against bacteria or viruses due to low white blood cell levels. In addition, aplastic anemia makes one’s immune system becomes very weak. Antibiotic drugs are urgently needed to prevent or cope with infection so that it will not get worse.
Blood transfusions. This method is used to control bleeding, reduce the symptoms that appear, as well as to supply the blood cells that cannot be produced by the marrow bone, so that blood cells levels are back to normal. The risk of this treatment is it can cause elevated levels of iron in the blood and it can interfere some organs functions.
Stem cell transplant. In stem cell transplant method, the doctor will transplant healthy stem cells from a donor to be given to sufferers of aplastic anemia through an infusion. However, this treatment does not always run smoothly. In some cases, the patient's body rejected the stem cells transplanted from donors. This condition could lead to dangerous complications.
The immunosuppressant. This method aims to control the activity of immune system cells that destroy the stem cell with the use of drugs, such as corticosteroids or cyclosporine. Generally, this method is done if aplastic anemia sufferers could not be treated by stem cell transplantation methods.
Bone marrow stimulant. In order for the bone marrow can re-produce the new blood cells, doctors could prescribe stimulants such as filgrastim, pegfilgrastim, sargramostim, and epoetin alfa. This method is often combined with the immunosuppressant.
Prevention Of Aplastic Anemia
Some steps can be done to prevent the symptoms of aplastic anemia becomes worse:
- Wash your hands regularly, especially after outdoors activity.
- Reduce doing heavy sports in order to lower the risk of bleeding due to physical contact.
- Have sufficient rest when necessary.
- Avoid the crowds in order not to get easily infected with the disease.
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