A COMMUNITY BASED SURVEY ON OCCURENCE OF ‘ANEMIA IN CHRONIC DISEASE’ IN COPD.

V. J. Divya*, A.Vikneswari, Sini Joseph, Rajesh Singh Bista, T. Tamizh Mani

ABSTRACT

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the long term obstruction of air flow characterized by shortness of breath, cough and sputum production meanly caused by chronic smoking and allergens affecting people above 35 years.Many chronic diseases have been shown to affect haematopoiesis, resulting in shortening of red blood cell (RBC) lifespan and sequestration of iron in macrophages, and leading to so-called anemia of chronic disease (ACD). Theoretically, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is another candidate likely to be associated with ACD, when considered in relation to already- known systemic effects of the disease. Anemia is seen in 10- 30% of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients (from previous data). Anaemia is such a common and simple clinical finding that we may underestimate its physiological relevance in COPD. There is emerging data suggesting that anaemia may be associated with increased disease severity, and perhaps mortality, in COPD. A prospective study was conducted. The Haemoglobin values were collected from physician diagnosed COPD patients of Udaya health care centre after obtaining patient consent. Out of 155 patients 78 patients haemoglobin values were collected after obtaining consent from them and anemic status of patients are evaluated. Out of 78 patients, 56 patients were found to be anemic. A total of 71.79% of patients are found to be anemic. The anemic patients were categorised based on their anemic values into mild,moderate and severe anemia.60.71% of patients are found as having mild anemia,33.92% of patients having moderate anemia and 5.35% of patients as severe anaemia.

Keywords: COPD, Anemia of chronic disease (ACD), Anemia.