Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Day #273 - Autoimmune Haemolytic Anemia (AIHA)


Great case of haemolytic anemia presenting as shortness of breath. I have previously blogged about AIHA and linked to good articles here. The approach to anemia is discussed in this blog, and the approach to microangiopathic haemolytic anemia (and TTP).

We also discussed the approach to dyspnea as a presenting illness which is easily remembered by the pneumonic FIT-RCMP


Fitness (i.e. out of shape)
R - Respiratory causes
C - Cardiac Causes
M - Metabolic (anemia and hyperthyroidism)
P - Psychological

... And I stand corrected -- a pulsus pardoxus of 10mmHg is felt to be signficant. Less than 10mmhg is highly sensitive for ruling out (LR -ve of 0.03) , more than 12 is more specific for ruling in (LR +ve 5.9)

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