Question

Blood Case Histories Dolores Welborn is a 28-year-old attorney living in Portland, Oregon. Dolores is in the second trimester of pregnancy with her first child, and though her pregnancy had been progressing normally, recently she has noticed that she tires very easily and is short of breath from even the slightest exertion. She also has experienced periods of light-headedness, though not to the point of fainting. Other changes she has noticed are cramping in her legs, a desire to crunch on ice, and the fact that her tongue is sore. She doubts that all of these symptoms are related to one another, but she is concerned, and she makes an appointment to see her physician. Upon examining Dolores, her physician finds that she has tachycardia, pale gums and nail beds, and her tongue is swollen. Given her history and the findings on her physical exam, the physician suspects that Dolores is anemic and orders a sample of her blood for examination. The results are shown below: Red Blood Cell Count 3.5 million/mm$^3$ Hemoglobin (Hb) 7 g/ml Hematocrit (Hct) 30% Serum Iron low

          Blood Case Histories
Dolores Welborn is a 28-year-old attorney living in Portland, Oregon. Dolores is in the second trimester
of pregnancy with her first child, and though her pregnancy had been progressing normally, recently she
has noticed that she tires very easily and is short of breath from even the slightest exertion. She also has
experienced periods of light-headedness, though not to the point of fainting. Other changes she has
noticed are cramping in her legs, a desire to crunch on ice, and the fact that her tongue is sore. She doubts
that all of these symptoms are related to one another, but she is concerned, and she makes an appointment
to see her physician.
Upon examining Dolores, her physician finds that she has tachycardia, pale gums and nail beds, and her
tongue is swollen. Given her history and the findings on her physical exam, the physician suspects that
Dolores is anemic and orders a sample of her blood for examination. The results are shown below:
Red Blood Cell Count 3.5 million/mm$^3$
Hemoglobin (Hb) 7 g/ml
Hematocrit (Hct) 30%
Serum Iron low

Show more…

Blood Case Histories
Dolores Welborn is a 28-year-old attorney living in Portland, Oregon. Dolores is in the second trimester
of pregnancy with her first child, and though her pregnancy had been progressing normally, recently she
has noticed that she tires very easily and is short of breath from even the slightest exertion. She also has
experienced periods of light-headedness, though not to the point of fainting. Other changes she has
noticed are cramping in her legs, a desire to crunch on ice, and the fact that her tongue is sore. She doubts
that all of these symptoms are related to one another, but she is concerned, and she makes an appointment
to see her physician.
Upon examining Dolores, her physician finds that she has tachycardia, pale gums and nail beds, and her
tongue is swollen. Given her history and the findings on her physical exam, the physician suspects that
Dolores is anemic and orders a sample of her blood for examination. The results are shown below:
Red Blood Cell Count 3.5 million/mm^3
Hemoglobin (Hb) 7 g/ml
Hematocrit (Hct) 30%
Serum Iron low

Added by Erin P.

Biology for AP Courses

Julianne Zedalis, John Eggebrecht

Instant Answer

Solved by Expert Katlin Koehn

01/19/2023

Step 1

Step 1: Dolores is experiencing symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, light-headedness, leg cramping, a desire to crunch on ice, and a sore tongue. Show more…

Show all steps

lock

Thanks for your feedback!

Based on these blood results, what is the most likely diagnosis for Dolores' current symptoms? And what is the major problem for Dolores and her baby with this diagnosis? And what would the treatment for Dolores' condition be? Blood Case Histories Dolores Welborn is a 28-year-old attorney living in Portland, Oregon. Dolores is in the second trimester of pregnancy with her first child, and though her pregnancy had been progressing normally, recently she has noticed that she tires very easily and is short of breath from even the slightest exertion. She also has experienced periods of light-headedness, though not to the point of fainting. Other changes she has noticed are cramping in her legs, a desire to crunch on ice, and the fact that her tongue is sore. She doubts that all of these symptoms are related to one another, but she is concerned, and she makes an appointment to see her physician. Upon examining Dolores, her physician finds that she has tachycardia, pale gums and nail beds, and her tongue is swollen. Given her history and the findings on her physical exam, the physician suspects that Dolores is anemic and orders a sample of her blood for examination. The results are shown below: Red Blood Cell Count: 3.5 million/mm³ Hemoglobin (Hb): 7 g/dL Hematocrit (Hct): 30% Serum Iron: low

Play audio

Feedback

Powered by NumerAI

Katlin Koehn and 98 other subject Biology educators are ready to help you.

Ask a new question

Labs

Want to see this concept in action?

NEW

Explore this concept interactively to see how it behaves as you change inputs.

View Labs

Key Concepts

Recommended Videos

Recommended Textbooks

Transcript

00:01 Humans and in a lot of living organisms is a very important vitamin that we need.

00:04 So the reason why it's important is because iron resides in certain proteins that are called hemoglobin.

00:15 So a hemoglobin is actually a set of four different what's called heem groups that are all connected together.

00:21 So it's much more complicated than this, but this is just a basic representation.

00:24 So you see four of these little guys, each one is a heem group.

00:30 And at the middle of each hem group, you have an iron atom.

00:37 So this iron atom is important because it is responsible for carrying oxygen.

00:52 So this is what carries oxygen actually through our blood.

00:57 So these hemoglobin proteins are in our red blood cells, which will be abbreviated as rbc.

01:05 So all of our red blood cells have these hemoglobin groups with iron at the center of each hem group, and each iron can carry oxygen.

01:14 So this is why iron is very important.

01:16 Now, iron is found in multiple different places of our body.

01:21 It's not just in hemoglobin, but 50 % of it is in hemoglobin.

01:27 So it's in our red blood cells carrying oxygen.

01:30 So it's a very important piece of our puzzle that makes the whole human body work.

01:37 Another 25 % of it is actually in our liver, and then the remaining 25 % is in various other proteins throughout our body.

01:44 And so it's important for just protein work in general, but most of it goes to hemoglobin because we want to make sure that our blood can carry lots of oxygen.

01:53 So that way you can do more than just sit there and do minor movements, but you can run, you can do sports, you can do parkour, you can do all the things, right? so iron we've established is important for carrying oxygen.

02:05 If you don't have enough, if there's not enough iron in your body to create all these hemoglobin's and to carry oxygen in your blood, then you are known as what's called iron deficient anemic or idea...

Ace is your personal tutor. It breaks down any question with clear steps so you can learn.

Start Using Ace

Continue solving this problem

Create a free account to:

View full step-by-step solution
Ask follow-up questions with Ace AI
Save progress and study later