DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i03.069

Pages: 1079-1084

Anemia is not a diagnosis, but may be a sign of an underlying cause or disease. Further evaluation of the patient with anemia is necessary to elucidate the underlying cause. Anemia is more common in children, adolescents and women in reproductive age group. Adult men less frequently present with symptoms of anemia as compared to children and women. Our aim was to study the prevalence of anemia among adult men presenting to a tertiary care hospital and also to study the spectrum of anemia and red cell indices in these anemic adult men who were hospitalised. Male patients who had hemoglobin levels less than 13g/dl and are ≥15 years of age are included in the study. Prevalence of anemia was estimated to be 30.1%. Among the hospitalised patients normocytic normochromic anemia was the most common morphological type. Anemia was found to be more between the age groups of 35 to 65 years. We intended to study the spectrum of red blood cell morphology and red cell indices in hospitalised anemic adult males presenting to a tertiary care hospital and to know the most common morphological type of these anemias. Men being the bread winners of the family, anemia leads to loss of physical productivity, more so in those who do manual work. Identifying anemia at an early stage and also confirming the morphological type of anemia may help in diagnosis of the underlying condition. Early treatment may improve the general condition of the patient and the outcome thus shortening the hospital stay.