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Hematology: anemias, leukemias, lymphomas, myeloma

General Medicine · MBBS

Study notes

Fatigue, pallor, spoon nails — iron deficiency; ferritin low; iron replaces. Iron deficiency (microcytic — spoon nails/koilonychia, pica: ferritin low; treat — oral iron, find cause — menstrual, GI loss) vs B12 (macrocytic — numbness, subacute combined degeneration: IM B12) vs hemolysis (jaundice, reticulocytosis). Leukemias — acute (blasts >20% — ALL — children, curable; AML — adults: induction chemo ± transplant), chronic (CLL — elderly, smudge cells; CML — Philadelphia chromosome — imatinib). Hodgkin (Reed-Sternberg — young, curable — ABVD), non-Hodgkin (aggressive/indolent). Myeloma (CRAB — elderly back pain: M spike, Bence-Jones; bortezomib-based). The blood smear is the first biopsy — cells tell the diagnosis.

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