anemia = heart murmur?

damabo80

The dr called today and said that her anemia level was at 24 (or maybe it was some other level, which indicated anemia..anywho..), and she had a heart murmur. He said that they'll do an EKG tomorrow to check on the murmur, but most likely it's related to the anemia.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm a bit confused on how low iron levels could cause a heart murmur, and of course the words "heart murmur" scare the crap outta me.

Also, if your baby had anemia, how wa it treated?

happyhoopla

Anemia can cause a heart murmor because more blood has to flow through the heart to transport the same amount of oxygen throughout the body. More blood flow=more turbulance=benign murmor. Anemia will be treated with iron supplements given orally and/or erythropoetin shots. Think of the iron has the ingredient to make more red blood cells and the epo shots has the stimulator for the body to make the red blood cells.

CLAYLIOVER

happyhoopla:

Anemia can cause a heart murmor because more blood has to flow through the heart to transport the same amount of oxygen throughout the body. More blood flow=more turbulance=benign murmor. Anemia will be treated with iron supplements given orally and/or erythropoetin shots. Think of the iron has the ingredient to make more red blood cells and the epo shots has the stimulator for the body to make the red blood cells.

this exactly.

MrsLee22

Was it her hematocrit level that was at 24?

I don't know about the heart murmur thing but I DO know that anemia is super common in preemies. Red blood cell production is one of the last things that kicks in for babies (which is why so many babies end up jaundiced, it has something to do with the red blood cell production/break down) so sometimes the teeny babies need some help with it.

damabo80

MrsLee22:

Was it her hematocrit level that was at 24?

I don't know about the heart murmur thing but I DO know that anemia is super common in preemies. Red blood cell production is one of the last things that kicks in for babies (which is why so many babies end up jaundiced, it has something to do with the red blood cell production/break down) so sometimes the teeny babies need some help with it.

Hemocrit or creatin (sp?). I'm not sure which one it was.

Piper345

I was born (full term) with a heart murmur. It has not really affected me for my entire life so far. In fact I went to get it checked out a few years ago and the cardiologist couldn't even detect it. The only "action" I ever had to take was taking antibiotics prior to dental work.

Deblondie1

Emily was given epogin (sp?) shots for a while, until her levels increased. She was born really early so she also had 5 blood transfusions bc of her anemia. But the shots did the trick and she is fine now. Also her heart murmer was so bad, she had surgery to correct it. Your LO probably isn't hat extreme but that was our experience.

mrsV719

Yes! This happened with LO. He had anemia and had a PPS murmur. The way the doc explained it was great. He said, like the pipes in your house, if the water pressure is low you can hear the water flowing through the pipes. The anemia makes the blood thinner and so they can hear the blood flowing through the veins. This is murmur that they hear. LO had an EKG and an ECHO and his heart is perfect. He just had to get rid of the anemia! GL!

katie4253

Gabe is anemic (as are most preemies).  He takes .2ml of Ferrous Sulfate twice a day along with .5ml twice a day of vitamin.  Once he is bigger we can use the combo vitamin with iron.  But, because he is so small, the iron is too high in the otc vitamin with iron.