PATHOGENESIS OF ANEMIA IN INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD

Abstract

Anemia is a pathologic state characterized by a decrease in the amount of hemoglobin per unit volume of circulating blood and resulting in a reduction of the oxygen-carrying power of the blood. Many details regarding the genesis of anemia remain to be settled, but it is clear that the various causative factors capable of producing the anemic state must operate through a few basic mechanisms. An understanding of these mechanisms is essential for the interpretation of blood pictures and for the rational treatment of the anemias of all age groups. The peculiarities of the anemias of infancy and childhood are due not to fundamental differences in the pathogenic mechanisms but to the peculiarities of the infantile organism itself, especially growth and metabolism, nutrition and susceptibility to infection, which modify and favor the development of anemia. While stressing the significance of these special features, a discussion of the pathogenesis of the