Anemia

The first step in treating your child is forming an accurate and complete diagnosis. Your child’s physician may suspect anemia if your child is fatigued, has pale skin and lips and has a fast heartbeat (called tachycardia). Anemia is usually discovered during a medical exam through simple blood tests that measure the concentration of hemoglobin and the number of red blood cells.

In addition to a complete medical history and physical examination, diagnostic procedures to determine the underlying cause of the anemia may include:

• hematocrit - the measurement of the percentage of red blood cells found in a specific volume of blood
• hemoglobin electrophoresis a test to determine the amount and type of hemoglobin in the blood
• additional blood tests
• bone marrow aspiration and biopsy - marrow may be removed by aspiration or a needle biopsy under local anesthesia. In aspiration biopsy, a fluid specimen is removed from the bone marrow. In a needle biopsy, marrow cells (not fluid) are removed.

After we complete all necessary tests, our experts meet to review and discuss what they have learned about your child's condition. Then we will meet with you and your family to discuss the results and outline the best treatment options.