Pernicious anemia - Highlights
Pernicious anemia is a form of megaloblastic anemia (deficiency of Vitamin B12) caused due to the lack of “intrinsic factor (IF)” in the stomach.
📝Here are some "Highlights" or a high level overview of Pernicious Anemia
The term “pernicious anemia” is specifically used to name the condition when a deficiency state of Vit-B12 is caused by a lack of intrinsic factor due to autoimmune destruction of the gastric cells.
Intrinsic factor is produced by parietal cells in the fundic region of the stomach and helps in absorption of vitamin B12.
A deficiency of Vit-B12 causes an impaired DNA synthesis, especially in rapidly dividing, mitotically active cells like hematopoietic cells.
The tongue becomes “beefy red” due to inflammation --> redness (due to atrophy of papillae) could be in patches or spread across the entire surface of the tongue (Hunter’s or Moeller’s glossitis).
A blood smear may reveal a) macrocytic and hyperchromic RBCs b) presence of hypersegmented granulocytes.
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🔎You could dig deeper into the topic
In fact, we delve a lot more deeper into this topic in our cheatsheet/note -> Pernicious anemia. We talk about,
Vitamin B-12 Absorption
Pathogenesis of Pernicious anemia
Clinical features
General symptoms
Neurologic symptoms
Oral manifestations
Lab diagnosis
You could read in detail about Pernicious anemia with our Revision Ninja - Oral Pathology and Medicine Course bundle!
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