Hemoglobin less than 6.5 g/dL is life-threatening and can cause death.
Severe iron deficiency anaemia may increase your risk of developing complications that affect the heart or lungs, such as an abnormally fast heartbeat (tachycardia) or heart failure, where your heart is unable to pump enough blood around your body at the right pressure.
You should call 911 or go to the emergency room if you are having severe symptoms or any chest pain, shortness of breath, or loss of consciousness. Left untreated, anemia can cause many health problems, such as: Severe fatigue. Severe anemia can make you so tired that you can't complete everyday tasks.
Undiagnosed or untreated iron-deficiency anemia may cause serious complications such as fatigue, headaches, restless legs syndrome, heart problems, pregnancy complications, and developmental delays in children. Iron-deficiency anemia can also make other chronic conditions worse or cause their treatments to work poorly.
Treatment for iron-deficiency anemia will depend on its cause and severity. Treatments may include dietary changes and supplements, medicines, and surgery. Severe iron-deficiency anemia may require a blood transfusion, iron injections, or intravenous (IV) iron therapy. Treatment may need to be done in a hospital.
Iron supplementation: In addition to taking daily iron supplements, you may need IV treatment, if you have very low iron levels. Receiving a transfusion of red blood cells via IV can increase iron in the blood and improve your anemia right away, although it is only a short-term solution.
On the basis of RBC transfusion guidelines, severe anemia was defined as a hemoglobin level less than 7 g/dL (22). We defined admission hemoglobin as the lowest hemoglobin level within 72 hours before hospital entry or the most recent hemoglobin level within 30 days before an elective admission.
The normal range for TIBC is 250–450 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dl). A value higher than this range may indicate iron deficiency or low iron saturation.
Iron deficiency anemia arises when the balance of iron intake, iron stores, and the body's loss of iron are insufficient to fully support production of erythrocytes. Iron deficiency anemia rarely causes death, but the impact on human health is significant.
Iron deficiency is diagnosed when ferritin is <30μg/L in adults and < 20μg/L in children. When ferritin is not elevated as an acute phase reactant, a value >30μg/L is normal. Ferritin can be as high as 100μg/L in adults and 150μg/L in children with iron deficiency and inflammation.
During stage 2, erythropoiesis is impaired. Although the transferrin level is increased, the serum iron level decreases; transferrin saturation decreases. Erythropoiesis is impaired when serum iron falls to < 50 mcg/dL (< 9 micromol/L) and transferrin saturation to < 16%.
Stage 3 – Iron Deficiency Anemia – Hemoglobin begin to drop in the final stage which, depending on other blood work, may formally be defined as IDA. At this stage your red blood cells are fewer in number, smaller and contain less hemoglobin.
Low red blood cells – hemoglobin level less than 120 g/L (grams per litre). Low iron level – ferritin under 30 μg/L (micrograms per litre), or under 200 μg/L with iron saturation less than 20%.
We use hemoglobin as a surrogate to measure iron levels, as iron is needed to produce hemoglobin. The general range for adults is between 12 and 18 grams per deciliter. But the minimum required for a woman to donate blood is 12.5 g/dL. For a man, it's 13 g/dL.
Amount (µg/L) Low. <12. Borderline low. 12-13.
This may be needed when: there's blood loss due to bleeding. there's a failure to make blood which results in anaemia. inherited conditions mean the production of blood is faulty.
People who are on blood thinners such as aspirin, Plavix®, Coumadin®, or heparin. People who have kidney failure (especially if they are on dialysis), because they have trouble making red blood cells. People who have trouble absorbing iron.
About 25% of iron deficient subjects have a serum ferritin in the range of 16–30 µg/l. some argue that levels below 40–45 µg/l represent a state of iron shortage and should be actively treated.
Mild anemia corresponds to a level of hemoglobin concentration of 10.0-10.9 g/dl for pregnant women and children under age 5 and 10.0-11.9 g/dl for nonpregnant women. For all of the tested groups, moderate anemia corresponds to a level of 7.0-9.9 g/dl, while severe anemia corresponds to a level less than 7.0 g/dl.
Iron deficiency anaemia will develop gradually over time, and patients may present with marked anaemia as low as 30 g/L. Whilst physiological compensation may occur, patients with marked iron deficiency anaemia may be at risk of cardiovascular instability including heart failure.
You may also find that low iron causes weight gain. There are a couple of reasons for this; firstly, your energy levels are low and so your exercise levels reduce; secondly, iron is essential for thyroid function, and an underactive thyroid will lead to weight gain.