Syndrome anémique en hématopathologie

Anaemia is an absolute decrease in red blood cells count. The first clinical sign of anaemia is the paleness of the mucosae. Other symptoms may be induced by hypoxia or by the cause of anaemia itself. A thorough clinical analysis resulting in a specific diagnosis is necessary for a complete, successful treatment. Fortunately, by using a systemic approach of the clinical presentation, the history, physical examination, and laboratory testing, making definitive diagnosis is easy most of the time. The increasing availability of semi-automated or automated haematology instrumentation allows more efficient testing than in the past. Automated cell counters determine red blood cells count, the mean corpuscular volume of the erythrocyte population and haemoglobin concentration and eventually calculate mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration and the index of red cell distribution. However, the first step is to classify the anaemia as regenerative or non regenerative with blood smear evaluation and reticulocyte count. In regenerative anaemia, blood loss or haemolysis should be sought. In non regenerative anaemia, the aetiological diagnosis is based on the identification of normochromic normocytic anaemia, hypochromic microcytic anaemia, or hypo/normochromic macrocytic anaemia.