Women's health · Explanation & counselling

Tired and pale at 28 weeks

Medium

10 min station · 2 min reading · Recommended for Curtin Year 4 students

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2 min reading · 10 min station · reminders at 2 min

Instructions

You are a medical student on placement in general practice. Your next patient is Adut Kuol, 27, who is 28 weeks pregnant and has been feeling tired. She is back for her routine 28-week blood results, which are below.

  1. Take a focused history

  2. Explain the results and your management plan to the patient

  • You do not need to examine the patient
  • You do not need to summarise your findings to the examiner

Full blood count

Full blood count
ItemValueReference range
Haemoglobin (28 weeks)92 g/L110-150 g/L
Haemoglobin (booking, 10 weeks)112 g/L110-150 g/L
MCV74 fL80-100 fL
MCH23 pg27-33 pg
White cell count9.4 x10^9/L4.0-11.0 x10^9/L
Platelets236 x10^9/L150-400 x10^9/L

The reference range at 28 weeks is the third-trimester range.

Iron studies and other antenatal bloods

Iron studies and other antenatal bloods
ItemValueReference range
Ferritin8 ug/L30-200 ug/L
Transferrin saturation7%15-45%
Haemoglobin electrophoresis (booking, 10 weeks)Normal pattern; no variant haemoglobin detected-
75 g glucose tolerance test (28 weeks)Fasting 4.5, 1 hour 7.8, 2 hours 6.4 mmol/L<5.1 fasting, <10.0 at 1 hour, <8.5 at 2 hours mmol/L

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