Aplastic anemia is a rare immune-mediated complication of thymoma. Thymomas, especially of the cortical type, have the capacity to generate mature T-cells from their immature precursors. Furthermore, mature intratumorous T-cells have an increased autoantigen-specific potential. We present the case of a 75-year-old patient with an inoperable cortical thymoma who developed aplastic anemia 7 years...

The scientific literature is replete with reports of cases of benzene-induced toxicity to the haematopoietic system. These mainly involve aplastic anaemia, the first cases of which were reported in 1897. At high level of benzene exposure (air concentration > 100 p.p.m.), the incidence of aplastic anaemia is approximately 1/100 individuals exposed, but this drops precipitously at lower levels of...

We performed a phase I/Il study of the administration of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colonystimulating factor (GM-CSF) to patients with aplastic anemia or myelodysplastic syndrome. Doses ranging from 15 to 480 .tg/m2 were administered as a one-hour or fourhour intravenous infusion daily for 7 days or as a 1 2-hour infusion for 1 4 days. Temporary improvements were seen in granulocy...

Aplastic anaemia occurring in pregnancy is a rare event with life threatening challenges for both mother and child. We present a successful fetomaternal outcome despite the challenges in the management of this rare condition in a tertiary but resource poor centre. This is case of a 37 year old Nigerian woman G6P0+5managed with repeated blood transfusions from 28 weeks of gestation for bone marr...

Regulatory T cells are believed to control the development and progression of autoimmunity by suppressing autoreactive T cells. Decreased numbers of CD4(+)CD25(+) FOXP3(+) T cells (Tregs) are associated with impaired immune homeostasis and development of autoimmune diseases. The transcription factors FOXP3 and NFAT1 have key roles in regulatory T-cell development and function. We show that Treg...

Two unusual cases of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) complicating aplastic anemia (AA) are described. Each patient had a history of preexisting acute hepatitis of unknown cause at the time of HLH diagnosis and infection-associated secondary HLH. They developed high fever and pancytopenia. Hemophagocytes were seen in the bone marrow. With steroid (in combination with etoposide and CyA i...

The size of single-stranded DNA in lymphocytes in GO stage from 22 patients with acquired primary and secondary aplastic anemia was estimated by alkaline sucrose gradient centrifugation. The average size was 9.3 (+/-0.3) times 10(7) daltons. The lymphocytes of patients contained significantly more single-strand breaks in DNA, compared to those of normal persons. The difference in size of single...

Human parvovirus (HPV) B19 induced aplastic crisis in a family leading to the diagnosis of hereditary spherocytosis (HS) is a very rare condition being barely reported in the literature. We herein report a 4-year-old girl, her brother, and their mother who all presented with progressive pallor and jaundice after a febrile illness. The HPV B19 was diagnosed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) ...

Aplastic anemia is a condition in which the hematopoietic stem cells fail to function adequately leading to peripheral pancytopenia. When the cytopenia is severe, patients require intensive support with blood products and broad spectrum antibiotics, and without definitive treatment, most will eventually die of infections or bleeding. Over the past 4 decades, however, these once uniformly fatal ...