Red blood cells are very small, elastic, disk-like red blood cells with a diameter of 7-10 microns. They enrich the lungs with oxygen and carry it throughout the body. Small dimensions and flexibility facilitate their movement along the capillaries, and the shape increases the area of the plane, simplifying gas exchange. In diseases associated with blood functions, the color, size, and shape of the red bodies can be modified. Target-shaped erythrocytes, or codocytes, are cells with a faded thin outer part and a thickening in the center in which hemoglobin accumulates.
Features of cytology of codocytes
In systematizing standard red blood cells, the amount of iron-containing protein in the cell volume should be 30%. Deficiency of a substance causes a decrease in the size of the red blood cell, the development of its flat configuration. Modification of the shape of the red bodies makes them stiff, flattened and thin.
Target-shaped erythrocytes are large and highly densified, which prevents their free passage through thin vessels. Tangential stresses in the form of drops appear in the cell membrane. They destroy the walls of the cell. Kodocytes acquire the shape of a star, and human health is deteriorating.
What contributes to a change in the shape of blood cells
Kodocytes in a smear of blood circulating through vessels outside the bone marrow occur if the volumes of the membrane of blood cells exceed the amount of hemoglobin contained in it. Targeted red blood cells are detected in liver disease. Also, changes in the shape of blood cells can occur due to other pathologies.
- Alcoholism. The action of toxins reduces hemoglobin levels. The remaining iron-containing protein is concentrated in one place of the erythrocyte, the accumulation of matter in appearance resembles a target, hence the name.
- Obesity.
- The pathogenesis of excess sodium monourate.
- Thalassemia.
- Poikilocytosis.
- Hemoglobinopathy
- Iron deficiency and B12 deficiency anemia.
Thalassemia
Hereditary modifications, or structural disorders of the hemoglobin protein, characterized by a suppression of the synthesis of polymer chains forming the structure of an iron-containing protein, are called thalassemia, or Cooley anemia, in medicine. Hypochromia, the presence of target erythrocytes, anisocytosis are characteristic of this pathology .
Symptoms of the disease begin to appear during the first two years of a child's life. Small patients have a nose bridge in the form of a saddle, malocclusion, an increase in the upper jaw. People with thalassemia are susceptible to intestinal infections, acute respiratory viral infections, possibly the formation of inflammation of the lung tissue.
Diagnose the disease by color index, the presence of target erythrocytes, increased indirect bilirubin, decreased levels of iron in the blood. Prevention of Cooley anemia is to prevent the birth of offspring from carriers of the genome of this disease.
Poikilocytosis
The formation and presence in the blood of abnormally modified red blood cells, which, due to various diseases, acquired a different shape from a round shape, is called poikilocytosis. In addition, cells, in addition to “appearance”, simultaneously lose certain characteristics and skills.
Poikilocytosis is detected by examination of a blood smear. The analysis shows the number of red blood cells of different shapes. In the case of confirmation of the presence of pathology, she is given one of four degrees. So, for example, with a diagnosis of moderate poikilocytosis, target erythrocytes in the blood are about 50%. In the acute degree, 100% of the red bodies are abnormal.
Diseases in which codocytes are detected
Target-shaped red blood cells are determined with hemoglobinopathies, lead poisoning, iron deficiency and B12-deficient anemia.
Hemoglobinopathy - a genetic or congenital modification, or a violation of the structure of the hemoglobin protein. Violation of the structure of the amino acid chains of abnormal iron-containing proteins occurs due to changes in the genome. Hemoglobinopathies are:
- Qualitative. They are characterized by the substitution of organic compounds with carboxyl and amine groups. If glutamine 6 is replaced by valine, hemoglobin S is formed.
- Quantitative. They are associated with the rate of synthesis of spiral and layered-folded amide chains.
Iron deficiency anemia is a disease in which the rate of iron-containing protein in the blood is much lower than normal. This type of anemia is characterized by a change in shape, a decrease in the size of red blood cells, a decrease in the amount of serum iron, and an increase in copper in the blood.
B12-deficient anemia is a severe form of anemia resulting from malabsorption of cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12). With this disease, in the peripheral blood moving in the bed of elastic tubular formations, the color index increases, a decrease in reticulocytes and poikilocytosis are detected.
Depending on the type of anemia in which target erythrocytes were detected, appropriate treatment is also prescribed.