Anemia is easy to explain if taking into account the meaning of the Greek word – “without blood”. This term refers to the deficiency of hemoglobin and red blood cells. The responsibility of these red blood cells is to ensure the tissues with oxygen. Being given the fact that anemia is the most frequent blood disorder, there are different types of anemia, caused by different factors. There are many ways of classifying anemia, taking into account different relevant factors, but there are some common classifications of anemia: microcytic anemia (mean corpuscular volume>100), macrocytic anemia (mean corpuscular volume <80) and normocytic anemia, which may be high reticulocyte and low reticulocyte.

Microcytic anemia is the most common form of blood disorder, characterized by iron deficiency (hypochromic anemia) caused by low iron intake during the daily diet or the poor iron absorption into the body. The importance of iron is very big, as it is responsible for hemoglobin level. That is why the fact that many pregnant women have iron deficiency is worrying, as this deficiency may be transmitted to the fetus and may interfere with his normal development. In order to surpass the iron deficiency the animal meats are recommended, as iron from this type of sources may be absorbed easier. Microcytic anemia may be also caused by globin synthesis defect and by sideroblastic defect, which may be acquired, hereditary and reversible. There are other common causes for microcytic anemia: heme and porphyrin synthesis.

The other type of macrocytic anemia may be the result of the folic acid deficiency or of the vitamins B deficiency. The causes of such deficiencies may be the poor diet containing vitamins B and folic acid or the abnormal absorption. The deficiency of vitamin B12 produces neurological symptoms, causing the megaloblastic anemia, which turns into macrocytic anemia. Another type of anemia – pernicious anemia – leads to the later development of the macrocytic anemia. This type of anemia is characterized by the problematic and poor absorption of the vitamin B12.

The normocytic anemia may be caused by anemia of chronic disease, also called “anemia of inflammation”. This type of anemia is also a blood disorder triggered by the chronic immune activation, a chronic infection or malignancy. If this type of anemia is not discovered at the right time it may transform into normocytic anemia. It may be alike the iron deficiency anemia, because of the fact that many people who suffer from chronic illnesses have iron deficiency. Dimorphic anemia is characterized by two types of anemia developed at the same time. The deficiency of both iron and folic acid or vitamin B12 may be the cause of this type of anemia. The normocytic anemia may have some other sub-types: hemolytic anemia, sickle cell anemia, aplastic anemia. In the case the normocytic anemia is caused by severe blood loss, this type of anemia is called post hemorrhagic anemia.

There are also many other types of anemia, but many of them are developed rarely by patients. The number of anemia types is impressive, as the specialists have found over 400 types of anemia due to different types of blood disorder. Some specialists classify the main types of anemia using two approaches: morphology and etiology. Morphology deals with analysis of the shape, size and color of the erythrocytes red blood cells while etiology analyzes the causes of the hemoglobin and erythrocyte depletion. The changes in the morphology are named in certain ways so that the types of anemia would have suggestive names with the cause of the anemia included. In this way, no other specifications are necessary. In other cases anemia may be caused by the hereditary information and that is why the pregnant women may transmit their deficiencies to the children.