Hemolytic Anemia Causes, Symptoms, and Diagnosis.

Red blood cells have the important mission of carrying oxygen from your lungs to your heart and throughout your entire body. Your bone marrow is responsible for making these red blood cells. When destruction of red blood cells outpaces your bone marrow’s production of these cells, hemolytic anemia occurs. Hemolytic anemia can be extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic hemolytic anemia develops by several methods, such as when the spleen traps and destroys healthy red blood cells, or an autoimmune reaction occurs. It can also come from red blood cell destruction due to: • infection • tumors • autoimmune disorders • medication side effects • leukemia • lymphoma • Intrinsic hemolytic Intrinsic hemolytic anemia develops when the red blood cells produced by your body don’t function properly. This condition is often inherited, such as in people with sickle cell anemia or thalassemia, who have abnormal hemoglobin. Other times, an inherited metabolic abnormality can lead to this condi