From Canvas (Blood Disease Vocabulary) - Unit 7: Blood and the Lymphatic System

Abnormal Red Blood Cell Morphology

A broad clinical category that includes any type of abnormality in the size, shape, or color of erythrocytes, such as anisocytosis, poikilocytosis, microcytic cells, and hypochromic cells.

Anemia

A deficiency of oxygen delivery to body cells due to a decrease in the quality or quantity of hemoglobin or red blood cells. Common universal symptoms include fatigue, paleness, headache, fainting, numbness, loss of appetite, lower extremity swelling, and difficulty breathing.

Aplastic Anemia

A form of anemia, also known as bone marrow depression anemia, characterized by pancytopenia, which is an inadequacy of all the formed elements of the blood.

Pancytopenia

A clinical condition characterized by a severe decrease in the numbers of all types of blood cells (RBCs, WBCs, and platelets) due to the failure of the bone marrow to produce stem cells.

Hemolytic Anemia

A form of anemia characterized by an extreme reduction in circulating red blood cells due to their premature destruction.

Iron Deficiency Anemia

A common type of anemia characterized by a deficient hemoglobin level resulting directly from a lack of iron in the body.

Pernicious Anemia

A form of anemia resulting from a lack of vitamin B12 absorption, leading to a deficiency of mature red blood cells and the circulation of distorted, immature megaloblasts showing marked poikilocytosis and anisocytosis.

Sickle Cell Anemia

A chronic, hereditary form of hemolytic anemia in which red blood cells become crescent-shaped in low-oxygen concentrations, causing them to clump together, form thromboses, and occlude small blood vessels, resulting in severe pain.

Thalassemia

A hereditary form of hemolytic anemia in which the alpha or beta hemoglobin chains are defective, causing deficient hemoglobin production and creating hypochromic, microcytic red blood cells.

Hemochromatosis

A rare iron metabolism disease characterized by abnormal iron deposits throughout the body, which usually develops as a complication of one of the hemolytic anemias.

Polycythemia Vera

A bone marrow disease characterized by an abnormal increase in the total number of red blood cells, granulocytes, and thrombocytes, leading to a dangerous increase in overall blood volume and viscosity.

Thrombocytopenia

A deficiency in the number of circulating thrombocytes caused by bone marrow damage from radiation, chemicals, drugs, or leukemia cells crowding out stem cells. This condition impairs clotting and results in petechiae.

Purpura

A condition characterized by purple or pinpoint hemorrhages (petechiae) in the skin or mucous membranes, caused by a decreased number of circulating platelets.

Hemophilia

A group of hereditary inadequacies of specific coagulation factors that results in impaired clotting and prolonged bleeding times.

Septicemia

A severe, life-threatening bacterial infection of the tissues that spreads into the bloodstream, causing severe systemic symptoms; also commonly referred to as sepsis or blood poisoning.