Blood Tests Tied to Anemia in Heart Attack Patients, Saint Luke's Mid America Heart and Vascular Institute Study

Drawing blood for medical tests could make sick patients even sicker, hints a new study that suggests taking blood for testing, over and over, may not be as innocent as doctors used to think. Earlier research has shown that as many as half of heart attack patients who arrive at the hospital with normal levels of red blood cells go home with anemia -- a deficit of the oxygen-carrying red cells -- often serious enough to cause symptoms. "People who developed moderate anemia had more symptoms -- such as fatigue and shortness of breath -- and actually had higher mortality after being discharged from the hospital," said Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod of Saint Luke's Mid America Heart and Vascular Institute in Kansas City, Missouri.