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The anemia of chronic disease english hawthorn be a beneficial, adaptative response to the underlying disease, rather than a negative effect of the illness, postulates an analysis article in CMAJ, http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg333.pdf.
The authors argue that anaemia may be beneficial to patients with inflammatory disease, and advocate restraint in treating mild to check forms of anemia.
"The general assumption is that anemia is a disorder and that patients would be better sour without it," state the authors.
However, they suggest that anemia of chronic disease has the characteristics of an adaptative physiologic response, and their review of the literature shows that mortality appears to increase when treatment, given to raise haemoglobin levels, overrides mild to moderate anemia of chronic disease. They call for better characterization of the cause of individual patients' anemia in future trials of anaemia treatment, and careful monitoring of adverse outcomes, including mortality, if patients with anemia of chronic disease are included in such trials.
Source:
Jennifer Paterson
Canadian Medical Association Journal
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