Apart from suffering from recurrent and prolonged infections, Marie Curie also e

Question

Apart from suffering from recurrent and prolonged infections, Marie Curie also experienced the following signs and symptoms: fatigue, rapid heart rate, pale skin, easy bruising, prolonged bleeding from cuts, and dizziness. Bone marrow transplant was not an option at that time and so blood transfusion was the treatment of choice. Explain the reasoning behind these other signs and symptoms that Curie experienced. Assume her blood group was A negative. Which blood groups can she receive? Which blood groups can she not receive? Explain why. Be detailed in your explanation and support your answer with facts from your textbook, research, and articles from scholarly journals. In addition, remember to add references in APA format to your posts to avoid plagiarism.

Explanation / Answer

From the history,it is evident that Marie curie is suffering from anemia(pale skin,fatigue are suggestive of anaemia).And it is said that she had recurrent boots of infections.Normally neutrophils migrate to the site of any infection and destroys the offending agent there.In this case due to decreased amount of neutrophils this mechanism wont happen.Further there is thrombocytopenia (prolonged bleeding from cuts).So all together there is not only a decrease in the amount of RBCs ,but also other cells of blood are decreased (pamcytopenia).These chararacters are highly suggestive aplastic anemia. Aplastic anemia refers to a syndrome of chronic primary hematopoetic failure and attendant pancytopenia(anemia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia).In Curie's case ,the etiology for aplastic anemia is due radiation exposure .The hematopoetic stem cells in bone marrow may be antigenically altered by radiation exposure in this case(or due to any ather etoetologies such as drugs infectious agents or due to any other unknown environmental insults).This further provokes cellular immune response during which activated TH1 cells produces cytokines which supress and kills the altered hematopoetic cellc leading to marrow suppression.

The treatment of choice now is bone marrow transplantation.

But blood transfusion is used , in this case, the most preferred blood group would be A-ve or O-ve blood groups.As her blood group is A-ve,a donor with A-ve blood group is most suitable.As O blood group RBCs dont ahave any surface antigens ,it can also be used safely.Any other blood groups other than that above two will cause severe complications.

Please do comment any doubts if any.

Reference:Robbins and Cotrans pathological basis of disease

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