Causes
Typical causes of microcytic anemia include:
- childhood
- iron deficiency anemia, by far the most common cause of anemia in general and of microcytic anemia in particular
- thalassemia
- adulthood
- iron deficiency anemia
- sideroblastic anemia, congenital or acquired
- anemia of chronic disease, although this more typically causes normochromic, normocytic anemia. Microcytic anemia has been discussed by Weng et al.
- lead poisoning
- pyridoxine deficiency
Other causes that are "typically" thought of as causing normocytic anemia or macrocytic anemia must also be considered, and the presence of two or more causes of anemia can distort the "typical" picture of each.
The Mentzer index is one tool used to identify the cause of microcytic anemias.
Read more about this topic: Microcytic Anemia