Aplastic anemia
| Aplastic anemia | |
|---|---|
| Synonyms | aplastic anaemia |
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| Micrograph of bone marrow taken from a patient with aplastic anemia | |
| Classification and external resources | |
| Specialty | Oncology, hematology |
| ICD-10 | D60-D61 |
| ICD-9-CM | 284 |
| OMIM | 609135 |
| DiseasesDB | 866 |
| MedlinePlus | 000554 |
| eMedicine | med/162 |
| MeSH | D000741 |
Aplastic anemia is a rare disease in which the bone marrow and the hematopoietic stem cells that reside there are damaged. This causes a deficiency of all three blood cell types (pancytopenia): red blood cells (anemia), white blood cells (leukopenia), and platelets (thrombocytopenia).Aplastic refers to inability of the stem cells to generate mature blood cells.
It is most prevalent in people in their teens and twenties, but is also common among the elderly. It can be caused by heredity, immune disease, or exposure to chemicals, drugs, or radiation. However, in about half the cases, the cause is unknown.
The definitive diagnosis is by bone marrow biopsy; normal bone marrow has 30–70% blood stem cells, but in aplastic anemia, these cells are mostly gone and replaced by fat.
First line treatment for aplastic anemia consists of immunosuppressive drugs, typically either anti-lymphocyte globulin or anti-thymocyte globulin, combined with corticosteroids and ciclosporin. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is also used, especially for patients under 30 years of age with a related matched marrow donor.
Anemia may lead to malaise, pallor and associated symptoms such as palpitations.
Low platelet counts (thrombocytopenia) if present is associated with an increased risk of hemorrhage, bruising and petechiae. Low white blood cell counts (leukocytopenia) if present leads to an increased risk of infections which can be severe.
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