Anemia and heart disease in the tropics

Anemia is often identified with pallor. This popular notion corresponds to a physiological fact: red blood cells contain a red pigment, haemoglobin. The history of anaemia is characterised by two major advances. Between 1960 and 1970, physiological knowledge about red blood cells accumulated to the point where the red blood cell is probably one of the least mysterious cells. More recently, it is in the measurement techniques that spectacular progress has been made. The introduction of electronic detection methods and then of computers has made it possible to measure the various constituents of the blood with extreme precision. The combination of these advances in physiology and technology has made it possible for doctors to develop a logical diagnostic methodology with great precision and reliability. This logical structuring of the diagnosis is very useful in the case of anaemias where dozens of biological, radiological or isotopic examinations are carried out and dozens of causes are known.