cold agglutinin disease

Hi there,
Have you ever heard of cold agglutinin disease? Its a type of hemolytic anemia. We got a patient with this disease in our ward. She came in with complaints of short of breath, lethargy, malaise, anorexia. Her blood result showed low hemoglobin level. Do you know what does hemoglobin do? Its a substance in red blood cells which gives red color to red blood cells and carries oxygen to the tissues of every part of your body. So what does happen if hemoglobin is low in your blood. Our tissues starve without oxygen which can lead to the death of tissues.Why Hemoglobin is low in cold agglutinin disease?Autoimmune hemolytic anemia is characterized  by the presence of high concentration of antibodies which direct against the red blood cells.In this case antibodies bind red blood cells only at low body temperatures, typically 28-31 degree centigrades. That is why it is COLD agglutinin disease.So when nurses introduce anything intravenously, for eg: blood and blood products, do not forget that the antibodies in this patient's body destructs the RBCs if we administer them in low temperatures. So we had to use a warmer to warm the IV fluids and blood products. It was a new experience for me in my practical nursing. I hope you remember this blog when you get a patient of this type in your nursing job. I learned about a new disease during my nursing job at brisbane.








h