Internal Medicine

Blood diseases / hematology

definition

Hematology is a specialist area of internal medicine that deals in particular with the teaching of the healthy function of the blood system and, in turn, the diseases in the blood. Hematology is one of the more complex areas of internal medicine, as knowledge about the malfunctions of the blood system is in the initial therapeutic stages, and it is usually about the finest cell processes that are not yet fully understood.

The following is an overview of the most important diseases in hematology.

Hemato-oncology

In some clinics, the area of hematology and oncology (teaching of tumor development) is combined into the superordinate specialist area of hemato-oncology, as hematology deals in particular with the various forms of leukemia (blood cancer) and lymphomas (lymph gland cancer).

The most important haemato-oncological diseases include:

acute myeloid leukemia
chronic myeloid leukemia
acute lymphoblastic leukemia
chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Lymphoma

Epidemiology

All in all, diseases of the haematological form / Diseases in the blood kinda rare. They are an exception Anemia. These are relatively common, especially the Iron deficiency anemia which accounts for up to 80% of anemia. The leukemia and Lymphoma make up a relatively small proportion of total diseases. Their frequency peak is around 1-2 per 100,000 cases per year. Most leukemias occur in middle to old age. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is the most common, is an exception Leukemia in children is.

Major diseases of the blood

Platelet disorders

Along with erythrocytes and leukocytes, platelets are components of the blood.

Here you can find detailed information on platelet diseases :

Thrombophilia
Thrombocytopenia
Thrombocytosis

Do you have an increased tendency to bleed? Maybe Werlhof's disease is behind your complaints. Find out more at: Werlhof's disease - is it curable?

Factor 5 suffering; Protein C deficiency

Factor 5 disease, also known as APC resistance, is a disease that affects the body's coagulation system. The coagulation system ensures that in the event of an injury, the blood clots quickly, the bleeding is stopped and the wound can heal.
The so-called factor 5 is a specific protein that is largely responsible for blood clotting. In the clinical picture of the factor 5 disease, there is a mutation in a gene that is responsible for the expression of this factor. Due to this mutation, the factor is still present, but it can no longer be broken down by the so-called "activated protein C". The activated protein C, or APC for short, normally ensures that the blood does not clot too quickly and strongly by splitting the factor 5 and thus rendering it ineffective.

Thalassemia

Thalassemia is an inherited disease of the red blood cells. The hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein complex that is responsible for the oxygen-binding ability of the red blood cells, is defective. It is not formed in sufficient quantities or is increasingly broken down, resulting in a hemoglobin deficiency.

Depending on the severity of the thalassemia, it is a serious clinical picture that, if left untreated, can be fatal in early childhood. Thalassemia is particularly widespread in the Mediterranean region. This is where its name comes from, because thalassemia means something like "Mediterranean anemia". People in former malaria areas are particularly affected, for example in Malta, Cyprus, Greece and Sardinia. This is because the mild form of thalassemia has an evolutionary advantage in malaria diseases. The genetic defects in the red blood cells prevent the malaria pathogens from multiplying in the red blood cells. As a result, humans had a survival advantage and thalassemia was able to establish itself further in the course of evolution.

Read more information on the topic here: Thalassemia

Anemia

Anemia is a common symptom. Anemia can be divided into different forms:

Iron deficiency anemia
megaloblastic anemia
pernicious anemia
hemolytic anemia
aplastic anemia

In the respective topic you can find out more about diagnosis, cause and specific therapy.

Symptoms

The symptoms of haematological diseases / diseases in the blood are often very unspecific and mainly manifest themselves as:

paleness
fatigue
Poor concentration
Reduction in performance
increased susceptibility to infection and
increased tendency to bleed.

forecast

The prognosis of haemato-oncological diseases / diseases in the blood, like the various clinical pictures, are very different. Whether a prognosis is favorable or unfavorable depends more and more on which exact changes are present at the genetic level and which pre-existing diseases exist. On the basis of this information, the hematologist / oncologist can assess the likelihood of a cure for the blood disease. Special chromosomal changes even promote the healing of, for example, leukemia, since drugs can be produced in a targeted manner that prevent these cancer-promoting processes

Rehabilitation / prophylaxis

In this sense, there really is no prophylaxis against haematological diseases. In the context of iron and Vitamin deficiencies you can of course take iron and / or vitamin supplements to prevent the deficiency. There are no prophylactic measures against the development of leukemia, since the development of leukemia is based on a change in the genetic make-up, and this cannot (yet) be influenced by us. Some Forms of lymphoma arise in association with viral diseases. One example is the so-called Burkitt lymphoma, which consists of ener HI virus infection can arise. The latest research shows that more and more forms of cancer arise as a result of viral infections. However, these results are still in the initial phase of research. This is important during the chemotherapy a close control of the patient's infection status is carried out, and if an infection is present, this is treated broadly. Untreated infection can lead to death in an immunosuppressed patient within a few days. The essence of prophylactic treatment includes chemotherapy therapy. This means that the side effects of chemotherapy must be treated. These include the accompanying disorders mentioned above such as Kidneys and Liver damage. Thus, the overall therapy is not only based on the haemato-oncological treatment principles, but is based on an interdisciplinary treatment principle in which a large number of different disciplines participate.

Summary

The Hematology / teaching of diseases in the blood deals with the healthy and defective functioning of our blood system. Hematological diseases are very diverse and complex. The most important diseases include leukemia, lymphomas, anemia, hemoglobin formation disorders and storage diseases. The treatment of these diseases can be very uncomplicated on the one hand, but also very complex on the other. Especially when it comes to the Therapy of haemato-oncological diseases, like leukemia and lymphoma. Chemo and chemoradiotherapy are important pillars of haemato-oncological therapy concepts and are nowadays essential when it comes to achieving curative success. The prognosis of haematological diseases is very variable and depends on many genetic factors. These cannot be influenced in detail. Only the information about which changes are involved is important for the therapy process. Ultimately, hematology is a field in which the research spectrum is far from exhausted. There will certainly be many changes in this field in the future, not only in hematology / oncology but also in entire medicine will change.