I have been diagnosed with hemlytic anemia and this is the 2nd time I had to have blood transfusions. I am then treated with prednisone and imuran. What is imuran and what has caused this anemia. No one in family has had any condition like this however I do take alot of medications. What medications will cause this?
Hemolytic anemia may be classified according to the means of hemolysis, being either intrinsic in cases where the cause is related to the red blood cell (RBC) itself, or extrinsic in cases where factors external to the RBC dominate. Intrinsic effects may include problems with RBC proteins or oxidative stress handling, whereas external factors include immune attack and microvascular antipathies (RBC's are mechanically damaged in circulation). Immune-mediated causes could include transient factors as in Cytoplasm pneumonia infection (cold agglutinin disease) or permanent factors as in autoimmune diseases like autoimmune hemolytic anemia (itself more common in diseases such as systemic lupus erythematous, rheumatoid arthritis, Hodgkin disease and chronic lymphocytes leukemia)Treatment includes blood transfusion in severe anemia and sometimes immunosuppressive treatment in autoimmune diseases, with prednisolone or azathioprine(Imran)Azathioprine is an immunosuppressive Chat Doctor.