A travel history to areas in which hookworms and whipworms are endemic may also be helpful in guiding certain stool tests for parasites or their eggs. Although symptoms can play a role in identifying iron-deficiency anemia, they are often vague, which may limit their contribution to determining the diagnosis. Blood tests
Anemia is often discovered by routine blood tests. A sufficiently low hemoglobin by definition makes the diagnosis of anemia, and a low hematocrit value is also characteristic of anemia. Further studies will be undertaken to determine the anemias cause. If the anemia is due to iron deficiency, one of the first abnormal values to be noted on a complete blood count, as the bodys iron stores begin to be depleted, will be a high red blood cell distribution width, reflecting an increased variability in the size of red blood cells.A low mean corpuscular volume also appears during the course of body iron depletion. It indicates a high number of abnormally small red blood cells. A low mean corpuscular volume, a low mean corpuscular hemoglobin or mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, and the corresponding appearance of red blood cells on visual examination of a peripheral blood smear narrows the problem to a microcytic anemia (literally, a small red blood cell anemia).The blood smear of a person with iron-deficiency anemia shows many hypochromic (pale, relatively colorless) and small red blood cells, and may also show poikilocytosis (variation in shape) and anisocytosis (variation in size).
Galantamine is used for the treatment of cognitive decline in mild to moderate Alzheimers disease and various other memory impairments. It is an alkaloid that has been isolated from the bulbs and flowers of Galanthus nivalis (Common snowdrop), Galanthus caucasicus (Caucasian snowdrop), Galanthus woronowii (Voronovs snowdrop), and some other members of the family Amaryllidaceae, such as Narcissus (daffodil), Leucojum aestivum (snowflake), and Lycoris including Lycoris radiata (red spider lily). It can also be produced synthetically. Studies of usage in modern medicine began in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. Galantamine was isolated for the first time from bulbs of Galanthus nivalis (common snowdrop) by the Bulgarian chemist D. Paskov and his team in 1956. The active ingredient was extracted, identified, and studied, in particular in relation to its acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-inhibiting properties. The first industrial process was developed in 1959. However, it was not until the 1990s when full-scale synthesis was upscaled and optimized.Since the alkaloid was isolated from a botanical source, it only had contents around 0.1%, which caused the yield to also be extremely low—in the single digits. Uses in mythology
In Homers Odyssey the god Hermes gives Odysseus a herb with "a black root, but milklike flower" called "moly", which Hermes claims will make Odysseus immune to the sorceress Circes drugs. It is believed that moly is the snowdrop Galanthus nivalis, which is a source of galantamine. The descriptions of moly given by Greek physician and herbalist Dioscorides support molys identity as Galanthus nivalis.