Diagnosis of Anemia

Anemia is a condition where red blood cell volume is either low or where red blood cells are dysfunctional in its oxygen carrying capacity.

Patients with anemia report feelings of weakness, fatigue, or exercise intolerance but also other symptoms may manifest. Anemia is diagnosed based on a hemoglobin concentration below 130 g/l in males and 120 g/l in females.

Anaemia is a serious global public health problem that particularly affects young children and pregnant women. Global anemia prevalence in 2010 was 32.9% and accounted for 8.8% of the total disability from all conditions.

The measurement of hemoglobin concentration is an easy test to perform, but is limited in that the pathology for anemia remains unknown. Accordingly, anemia may be the result of impaired production of red blood cells or increased destruction of red blood cells. In such cases the condition would be compliant with the definition of anemia (reduced red blood cell volume). Anemia may however also be the result of an augmented plasma volume while red blood cell volume is normal.

Only with a blood volume test, where both red blood cell and plasma volume are being measured, it is possible to accurately establish whether anemia is caused by decreased red blood cell volume or an increased plasma volume.

This may be exemplified by a reported 46.7% overdiagnosis of anemia in hypervolemic patients when based on simple hemoglobin concentration measurement. Similar results have been found when measuring blood volumes in anemic chronic kidney failure and dialysis patients using the Detalo Health Performance device.