Anaemia Package in Gomti Nagar, Lucknow

Anaemia means your blood carries less haemoglobin than it should, so your body gets less oxygen. People notice tiredness, weakness, dizziness, breathlessness on stairs, a fast heartbeat or pale skin. The package is for someone with a low haemoglobin on an earlier report, or with these symptoms, whose doctor wants to know why.

A low haemoglobin is a finding, not a diagnosis. Common causes include low iron, low vitamin B12, blood loss such as heavy periods or slow bleeding in the gut, long-term illness, and kidney or thyroid problems. The cause decides the treatment. Some causes, such as low folate or an inherited condition like thalassaemia, need tests that are not in this package, and your doctor may add them.

It is not always the first step. If your doctor has asked only for a CBC and an iron profile, those two may be enough. Anaemia in pregnancy follows the schedule your obstetrician sets.

The tests work as a set. Together they point towards the cause.

• CBC: gives the haemoglobin, the number and size of the red cells, and the white cells and platelets. Small red cells often point to low iron, though some inherited traits cause them too. Unusually large ones can point to low vitamin B12.
• Peripheral blood smear (PBS): a drop of blood is spread on a slide and looked at under a microscope. It shows the shape and size of cells that numbers alone cannot describe.
• Reticulocyte count: counts the youngest red cells. It shows whether the bone marrow is answering the anaemia by making more.
• Iron profile: serum iron, ferritin, TIBC and transferrin saturation. Ferritin shows your iron stores. TIBC and transferrin saturation show how much iron your blood can carry and how much it is carrying.
• Vitamin B12: needed to make red cells and keep nerves healthy. A low level can come from diet, poor absorption in the gut or some long-term medicines.
• TSH: an underactive thyroid can cause tiredness and sometimes a mild anaemia, so thyroid function is checked.
• Blood sugar and urine routine: screening for other causes of tiredness, such as diabetes or a urine infection. The sugar test is done fasting and after a meal where your doctor advises it.
• Stool for occult blood: finds blood in the stool that is too small to see. Slow bleeding from the stomach or bowel is a common hidden cause of iron deficiency.
• Ultrasound of the whole abdomen: looks at the liver, spleen, kidneys and other organs. An enlarged spleen or a kidney problem can sit behind anaemia. For heavy periods, a gynae ultrasound shows the uterus and ovaries in more detail.

Your doctor reads the set as a pattern. A low haemoglobin with a low ferritin, for example, points to iron deficiency, and the next question is why the iron is low. The stool test and the scan help with that. Treatment follows the cause.

In an adult man, or a woman after menopause, iron deficiency makes doctors look for a source of slow blood loss, often in the digestive tract. That is one reason the stool test is in this package. A positive result does not say where the blood comes from, so further tests may follow.

Check with your doctor before you start iron or vitamin tablets on your own. Iron taken for the wrong reason does not fix another cause, and it can upset the stomach. Do not stop tablets your doctor has prescribed without asking. If your thyroid result is high or low, the thyroid package goes into that in more detail. If you are not sure this is the right package, the health packages page sets all ten side by side.