Anemia may be defined as a deficiency in red blood cells or hemoglobin or both. Anemia is serious because of the impaired ability of the blood to carry oxygen. As a result the cells degenerate, especially those of the nervous system. This explains such early symptoms as disinterest, fatique, and loss of energy.

There are various kinds of anemia. For example, blood loss anemia is a result of hemorrhage or the chronic loss of blood. Although the bone marrow may be able to maintain a nearly normal red blood count, the iron stores of the body become progressively decreased. Accordingly, this type of anemia is marked not only by a decrease in the number of red blood cells but also by a severe drop in hemoglobin.

Iron deficiency anemia results from the insufficient intake of iron. Although the red cell count is usually nearly normal, the concentration of hemoglobin in each cell is reduced greatly, hence the expression hypochromic anemia. This condition is quite common and is treated successfully with iron compounds such as ferrous sulfate.

The heart is a sac enclosed muscular pump located directly behind the sternum. It is somewhat pear shaped, with the apex directed to the left, and it is about the size of the person's fist. The enclosing sac, called the pericardium, is a tough, fibrous structure with its base attached to the diagraphm below.

Essentially, the heart is a mass of cardiac muscle (myocardium) organized into four chambers : the two atrium above and the two ventricles below. The atrium, much smaller than the ventricles and with relatively thin walls, are marked by an ear-shaped, or auricular, appendage. Between the two atria there is a small oval depression (the fossa ovalis) marking the site of an opening (the foramen ovale) in the fetal heart.

Prostatitis is a clinical term loosely used to describe a constellation of symptoms which commonly occurs in young and middle-aged men. The complaints vary but consist mainly of sensation of chronic perineal fullness, low back pain or dysuria, sometimes associated with a slight urethral discarge. Usually there is no fever or major constitutional illness. The symptoms are often temporarily relieved but sometimes exacerbated following ejaculation or rectal massage of the prostate. The etiology in unknown.

It also permits definition of bacterial prostatis which may be asymptomatic, but in which clear evidence of larger numbers of bacteria are found in the prostatic fluid than can be accounted for by urethral contamination or from bacteriuria. The organisms are the same as those found in other urinary infections, e.g., Esch. Coli most commonly, followed by Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Proteus, and group D streptococci.

Most urinary tract infections are believed to arise by the ascending route after entry via the urethral meatus. This is by far the most common route of infection in the female and in association with instrumentation, in both sexes. It now generally accepted that bacteria ascend the urinary stream by simple Brownian movement and can reach the kidney in the absence of alteration of urine flow.

Some workers have postulated that there may be a pathway from the intestines to the kidney by way of lymphatic channels. According to Beeson’s review, direct lymphatic channels have not been convincingly demonstrated between the appendix and cecum and right kidney. Some investigators report passage of Indian ink particles from the lower to upper tract in animals but this remains to be confirmed.