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Why increased cardiac output in anemia!

22K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  Dr.Lacune 
#1 ·
A central concept in answering many "easy questions" in step 1.

Remember that hemoglobin carries oxygen and this O2 together with the dissolved O2 in plasma comprises the total oxygen content of the blood.

In anemia, there's no problem with the dissolved oxygen which determines the PO2 which in turn determines the saturation. All these three are normal in anemia.

What's decreased in anemia is the hemoglobin concentration. So we have a decreased oxygen content of the blood.

The oxygen delivery to the tissues is a measure of Cardiac Output and Oxygen content of the blood.

So here's why the cardiac output increases:

  • To compensate for the lowered oxygen content, this is done by increasing the heart rate and the stroke volume (hence the flow murmur in severe anemia).
  • On the other hand, RBC concentration is a major determinant of blood viscosity and so in anemia there's less viscosity and so less resistance to flow which translates to decreased peripheral vascular resistance.
  • The tissue hypoxia itself causes vasodilation
 
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#3 · (Edited)
1. Can u please tell me why do they (heart rate and stroke volume) increase in decreased oxygen content? is it due to nervous phenomenon? obviously theres nothing with the chemoreceptor since u said PO2 remains same. than how are they increased? pls explain

2. I have concept regarding the high cardiac output in anemia. please correct me if i am wrong. In anemia, since blood viscosity decreases, so the total resistance decreases.

And we know Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP)= Cardiac output X Total Resistance.

So according to this equation MAP also decreases since the total resistance decreases. To compensate this, Sympathetic neurons fire and increase the heart rate and stroke volume. And so cardiac output increases. Does this sound alright? :scared:
 
#6 ·
Great post. Thank you!
 
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