What is anemia and how is it diagnosed and treated?

Anemia is a RBC mass: Outside the normative values for age and sex. Typically, hematocrit (hct) for a woman is lower than for a man of the same age. For both boys and girls, after the physiologic nadir (occurs approximately 4-6 weeks of age) hcit rises toward adult levels steadily with age. Hct is determined by cbc, which also provides indices of red cell size and hemoglobin concentration. Treatment depends on cause.