Nursing Assignment: Case Study of Iron Deficiency Anemia in a Patient

This nursing assignment presents a case study of a 26-year-old female, Ms. A, diagnosed with iron-deficiency anemia. The assignment analyzes her symptoms, including shortness of breath, fatigue, and menstrual complications, along with laboratory findings such as low hemoglobin, hematocrit, and erythrocyte counts. It explores the causes of anemia, including heavy menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia and dysmenorrhoea) and the use of aspirin, which can lead to gastrointestinal bleeding. The assignment explains the rationale behind the patient's elevated respiratory and heart rates, and low blood pressure. The essay concludes with a summary of the patient's condition, risk factors, and the diagnostic process, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and addressing iron-deficiency anemia in clinical practice. The paper also includes references from various sources to support the analysis and findings.

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Nursing Assignment
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1Nursing Assignment
Anemia is referred to as the condition of the body where the aggregate healthy red blood cells in
human body. Decreased red blood cells produces complication in carrying oxygen to the different part of
the body. There are several categories of anemia such as, vitamin-deficiency anemia, iron-deficiency
anemia, anemia of severe disease, aplastic anemia, anemia caused by bone marrow, hemolytic anemia
and the sickle anemia (Camaschella, 2015). This essay focusses on the case study of Ms. A, who is 26
years old. She has been suffering from shortness of breathing, fatigue and other menstrual complication.
By observing the signs and symptoms and the risk factor it can be stated that the patient is having Iron-
deficiency anemia (DeLoughery, 2017). This essay includes the explanation of the circumstances that is
responsible for causing anemia or can be caused due to anemia and their rationale.
A has been suffering from shortness of breathing, fatigue which is worsen during the menstrual
phase. She also had become light head and had to go to emergency clinic. During the treatment, it is
observed that the patient is suffering from elevated respiratory part and heart rate. The patient is also
having low blood pressure. The result of the laboratory test states that, her hemoglobin level is low that
is, 8 g/dl from that of the normal (12.0- 15.5 g/dl), her hemocrit level (32%) is also low than the normal
level (37%- 48%). Erythrocyte count is low ( 3.1 x 10/mm). Hypochromic cell and microcytic cell are
observed in her RBC smear. Reticulate count and other laboratory values are normal. By observing her
health condition and the laboratory test values, it can be sated that the patient is suffering from iron-
deficiency anemia.
Iron deficiency anemia is one of the most commonly observed anemia. It occurs due to the lack
of iron in the human body. As the bone-marrow wants iron to prepare haemoglobin. Decrease in the
amount of iron can also cause decrease in haemoglobin level. In case of patient suffering from anemia,
shortness of breathing and fatigue is commonly observed. As red blood cell assists in carrying oxygen,
hence in the lack of haemoglobin, body will not get oxygen which is responsible for shortness of

2Nursing Assignment
breathing, due to the absence of oxygen patient also observed fatigue very often (Friedman et al., 2015).
The patient suffering from anemia suffers from breathing complication, which lead to increased
respiratory rate and irregular heartbeat. In the case of patient (Ms. A ), she also has been going through
from menstrual complication such as Menorrhagia and dysmenorrhoeal. Menorrhagia is defined as the
increase blood flow during periods which lasts longer than the normal period. Dysmenorrhoeal is
defined as the severe pain and cramps observed during periods. Menorrhagia is also said to be
responsible for causing anemia in individual as due to heavy flow of blood through the menstrual period,
loss of iron from the body is observed which contributes to anemia (Johnson et al., 2016).
From the past medical history of the patient, it can be observed that, in order to get relive from
the menstrual cramps the patient usually intake aspirin. Continuous use of pain reliever such as, aspirin
an cause gastro-intestinal bleeding. These chronic loss of blood from the body decreases the iron in the
body causing anemia (Kuo et al., 2015). By observing the hemoglobin level, hemocrit level, erythrocyte
count from the laboratory report it can be clearly stated that the patient is having anemia. Microcytic
and hypochromic cells (low RBC level) is also observed which is frequently observed in iron deficiency
anemia (Boman et al., 2017).
From the above essay, it is to be concluded that patient is having anemia. By observing the
symptoms, risk factor and the laboratory repots it can be stated that patient is going through iron-
deficiency anemia. Due to the anemia patient is also suffering from shortness of breathing and fatigue,
menstrual complication, intake of aspirin is identified as the risk factor for the anemia which leads to
increased heart and respiratory rate.

3Nursing Assignment
Reference:
Boman, K., Olofsson, M., Bergman, A. C. R., & Brännström, M. (2017). Anaemia, but not iron
deficiency, is associated with clinical symptoms and quality of life in patients with severe heart
failure and palliative home care: A substudy of the PREFER trial. European journal of internal
medicine, 46, 35-40.
Camaschella, C. (2015). Iron-deficiency anemia. New England journal of medicine, 372(19), 1832-1843.
DeLoughery, T. G. (2017). Iron deficiency anemia. Medical Clinics, 101(2), 319-332.
Friedman, A. J., Shander, A., Martin, S. R., Calabrese, R. K., Ashton, M. E., Lew, I., ... & Goodnough,
L. T. (2015). Iron deficiency anemia in women: a practical guide to detection, diagnosis, and
treatment. Obstetrical & gynecological survey, 70(5), 342-353.
Johnson, S., Lang, A., Sturm, M., & O'Brien, S. H. (2016). Iron deficiency without anemia: a common
yet under-recognized diagnosis in young women with heavy menstrual bleeding. Journal of
pediatric and adolescent gynecology, 29(6), 628-631.
Kuo, H. C., Lo, M. H., Hsieh, K. S., Guo, M. M. H., & Huang, Y. H. (2015). High-dose aspirin is
associated with anemia and does not confer benefit to disease outcomes in Kawasaki
disease. PloS one, 10(12), e0144603.