Anemia - a Medical Condition

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the drug treatment "iron booster" is effective in treating human blood disorder called Anemia. Two groups of equal numbers of patients are randomly assigned into either a placebo [control treatment -no drug] or drug treatment [experiment treatment + test drug]. All of patients in both groups are female, which suggest that gender can play a role in the level of concentration of hemoglobin. It is evident that there is a significant difference between placebo and drug treatment patients' blood count, in regards to the level of hemoglobin in the red blood cells. The data illustrated the group who received the drug treatment has increased numbers of the erythrocytes compared to the control group. Thus, distribution of "iron booster" is an effective way for minimizing the loss of red blood cells.

INTRODUCTION

Anemia is a medical condition that is unable to provide adequate oxygen to body tissues because of lack of red blood cells. There are many causes of anemia, in this experiment we will be discussing iron deficiency anemia that can be defined by decrease in the number of red blood cells caused by low level of iron. The iron deficiency anemia appears most commonly in developing countries, mainly affects pregnant women and women that are in childbearing age (Muslimatun et al., 2001). Women have higher demand for iron than men because of excessive blood loss during menstruation, maternal mortality. Also perhaps many of these women obtain diet that has reduced calories to avoid obesity which may contain lowered iron level than normal intake (Quintas et al., 1997). The hemoglobin concentration of an individual can indicate useful information of person's RBCs and it can be determined by using hemacytometer. The non-anemic level of hemoglobin is > 110g/L, anemia defines hemoglobin as <110 g/L, moderate anemia defines hemoglobin as <90 g/L and severe anemia defines as <80 g/L (Dreyfuss et al., 2000). The question that is needed to be considered is whether there is any correlation between the red blood cell counts of an individual and the given drug treatment? That being said, the research hypothesis is that the group who received the new drug "iron booster" will have a greater red blood cell counts than the placebo group with no drug; the numbers of RBC and reinforced drug will have a positive correlation. The research hypothesis will be tested by comparing red blood cells counts of all 60 samples to see if a relationship exists between the placebo group and drug treatment group. The prediction will be that if the research hypothesis is supported, then the drug treatment group will have higher red blood cells count than the placebo group.