Sir, European guidelines for long-term management of the transplant patients were published in your journal in 2002. Section IV.9.3 of these guidelines discusses post-transplant erythrocytosis [1]. It refers to the paper of Wickre et al. [2] and claims that: ‘One study in 53 polycythaemic transplant patients failed to find any increased incidence of thromboembolic events’. In fact, upon reviewi...

A unique case of recurrent brain abscess as the primary manifestation of pulmonary arteriovenous fistula is presented. In the absence of hematologic abnormalities and characteristic physical findings, the diagnosis of pulmonary arteriovenous fistula is particularly elusive. Patients with brain abscess must be carefully evaluated for the presence of pulmonary arteriovenous fistula or hereditary ...

Consumption coagulopathy and microangiopathic hemolytic anemia occurred as a complication of insertion of an axillofemoral, preclotted dacron graft. Treatment with heparin followed by dipyridamole and aspirin normalized the hematologic and coagulation abnormalities over a two month period. The mechanism of consumption coagulopathy associated with prosthetic grafts is discussed and a possible ro...

While secondary erythrocytosis is often associated with tumors arising from the kidney, other tumors have been described to originate in the liver, uterus, ovary, adrenal gland, and central nervous system, among which cerebellar hemangioblastomas are involved in most instances. Two cases of meningioma associated with erythrocytosis have already been reported. We observed a 59-year-old female pa...

We investigated the pathogenesis of isolated erythrocytosis of 14 yr duration in a 28-yr-old man. The increase in red cell mass was attributed to increased erythropoietin production. An extensive search for recognized causes of secondary erythrocytosis was unrevealing. Family members were found to be hematologically normal. After reduction of the circulating red cell mass by 20%, erythropoietin...

Erythroid colony growth in the presence and absence of erythropoietin was compared in 23 patients with primary proliferative polycythaemia (PPP), nine with idiopathic erythrocytosis, 10 with secondary polycythaemia, 15 with pseudopolycythaemia and in 76 normal subjects. Erythroid colonies growing without erythropoietin stimulation (endogenous erythroid colonies) from peripheral blood (BFU-E) we...

The oxygen sensing pathway modulates erythropoietin expression. In normal cells, intracellular oxygen tensions are directly sensed by prolyl hydroxylase domain (PHD)-containing proteins. PHD2 isozyme has a key role in tagging hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-α subunits for polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. Erythrocytosis-associated PHD2 mutations reduce hydroxylation of HIF-α. The i...

Cytogenetic studies of 68 patients who developed secondary leukemia (SL)/dysmyelopoietic syndrome (DMS) after extensive chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy as well as patients who developed SL/DMS without such treatment showed that those patients who received radiation alone or with chemotherapy had more extensive numerical and structural abnormalities than those who received only chemotherap...

Copper deficiency is an etiology of anemia, neutropenia, and bone marrow dysplasia that may be under-recognized. We report 5 patients with clinical presentation consistent with MDS who were found to be deficient in copper and whose hematologic abnormalities resolved with copper supplementation. We recommend copper level assessment in patients suspected of having low-risk MDS, especially those w...

Survey of 27 cases in the literature and the authors' 3 cases reveals a characteristic syndrome of congenital absence of the spleen with certain cardiovascular and gastrointestinal abnormalities. The hematologic and other findings permit a presumptive antemortem diagnosis. More accurate prognosis is made possible and valuable information is afforded the cardiac surgeon, since the cardiac anomal...