Teamhaem have spoken!

The film shows polychromasia and enlarged red cells – likely reticulocytes.  There are also small contracted cells  – spherocytes.  Normal red cells should be like the below:

Here is our patient’s film:

More results:

DAT – positive

LDH – 750iU/L

Reticulocytes 172×10*9/L

#teamhaem are convinced he has features of extravascular haemolysis and with a positive DAT we suspect this is autoimmune haemolytic anaemia.  There has been no recent transfusions.

Questions for the team:

• How do you classify haemolytic anaemia?
• We think this is autoimmune haemolytic anaemia.  What are the potential causes?

Please reply on Twitter and always include #teamhaem to allow others to follow your comments. Please join in the debate and learn about haematological problems along the way. The case will continue to  evolve over the coming week so keep checking #teamhaem for more information.

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