21- hypoxia series- 3 of 4

KYJ21- Anaemic Hypoxia
In this 4 part miniseries on hypoxia, session 3 talks about Anaemic Hypoxia.

Recapping, hypoxia is the term used to describe poorly oxygenated cells.  This can occur through many mechanisms.  One such mechanism is loosely called anaemia. Literally anaemia means "without blood".  Anaemic hypoxia is similar but refers to two states of the blood's capacity to transport oxygen to cells.  In our last post we spoke of the reduced oxygen level in the blood (hypoxaemia), meaning that a percentage of the haemoglobin was unsaturated with oxygen.

Well what if you were fully saturated (100%) yet still didn't deliver adequate oxygen to tissues? One such situation occurs when there is :
1- less red blood cells
Or
2- less Haemoglobin in each Red blood cell.

1-  less red blood cells
This form of anaemia is seen in blood loss, or blood district ice diseases.  Given you have some 75 trillion RBC delivering your oxygen, it is reasonable to assume that if you had a massive trauma/surgery and lost a lot of blood, you would have less capacity to transport oxygen.  Haemorrhage or haemolytic anaemia is therefore a cause.

2- less haemoglobin
Given each RBC is stuffed with 200-300 million molecules of haemoglobin (made from iron), some people with misshaped RBC or iron deficiency, don't have as much Haemoglobin in each RBC.  Less Hb = less oxygen being transported per red blood cell.
Examples are Sickle Cell anaemia, or iron deficiency anaemia.

Summary:  in anaemic hypoxia, cells suffer because blood can't carry the quantity of oxygen to meet demand. Either too few RBC, or too little Hb in each RBC.

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