Anyone medical or who knows about red blood cells about?

[orangehead]

Just had a letter from hospital about ds2 aged 5. It basically says his intial blood results are normal and 'he is not anaemic but his red cells are very slightly small and it may be worth checking his iron levels at some point'.
Can anyone shed any light on this please? Is it a problem if they are small? Also Im a bit confused that he is not anaemic but he wants to check his iron levels, I thought that was essentially the same thing

[orangehead]

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[DarrellRivers]

People may have low iron levels which go on long enough leads to low Hb (anaemia)
So your Ds might just have the early low levels ie it hasn't impacted on him to cause the low Hb.
If you have Iron Deficiency Anaemia, your Red blood Cells are often a little smaller than normal, so this is probably why it is worth checking out his iron levels at some point.
It is not a cause for concern, and I would reckon work on an iron rich diet, traffic lights, red=meat, yellow=eggs green=veggies, is the most sensible way forwards

[thebestofit]

red blood cells need iron to be red and normal sized
if iron is in short supply at first the red blood cells will still be produced but will be paler[hypochromic] and smaller[microcytic]when looked at under the microscope on a blood film.
When the iron stores are finished there will not be any iron to make new red blood cells in the normal way or normal amount so there will be less red bcs in the blood which is anaemia.

By giving supplements and increasing dietary iron the stores fill up and anaemia willbe prevented

checking iron levels such as serum ferritin has to be specifically asked for and would not have been covered in initial screen.It checks the iron stores.

[orangehead]

Thanks darrell. Could this be due to him not absorbing the iron properly. He has a healthy diet and is under investigation for bowel problems, possibly hirsprung disease. He is having bowel biospy next week. Or is it not connected

[thebestofit]

x post with darrell!but yes could be connected to poor absorption of iron from the bowel like coeliac disease or crohns etc

[DarrellRivers]

Could well be linked to poor absorption
Very clearly explained bestofit, i always find it hard writing down explanations

[orangehead]

He has also had test for coeliac. Still awaiting result for that.