Hemolytic anemia is characterized by intravascular and extravascular destruction of erythrocytes. It manifests if the production of the erythrocytes in the bone marrow is slower than their degradation. A first good differentiation of the several forms of hemolytic anemia can be made between ‘hereditary’ and ‘acquired’. In this article, the most important forms of acquired hemolytic anemia are p...

Polygenic IgG autoantibodies are implicated in majority of the cases of warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (WAIHA). In some of these cases, complement (C3) proteins accompany the IgG antibodies. WAIHA mediated by C3 alone is relatively rare. We present an interesting case of WAIHA with a direct antiglobulin test (DAT) positive for C3 but negative for IgG in a 79-year-old woman and perform an anal...

Immunologic studies performed in a case of autoimmune chronic hemolytic anemia with low titer cold agglutinins (1/16) demonstrated that the cold agglutinins corresponded to monoclonal IgG with anti-Pr specificity. This antibody had a large thermal amplitude, being active at 37 degrees C. These unusual characteristics may define a distinct subset of chronic cold agglutinin disease.

Hemolytic anemia is characterized by intravascular and extravascular destruction of erythrocytes. It manifests if the production of the erythrocytes in the bone marrow is slower than their degradation. A first good differentiation of the several forms of hemolytic anemia can be made between ‘hereditary’ and ‘acquired’. In this article, the most important forms of acquired hemolytic anemia are p...