Potential role of Howell-Jolly bodies in identifying functional hyposplenism: a prospective single-institute study.

Potential role of Howell-Jolly bodies in identifying functional hyposplenism: a prospective single-institute study. Int J Hematol. 2020 Jun 23;: Authors: Nakagami Y, Uchino K, Okada H, Suzuki K, Enomoto M, Mizuno S, Yamamoto H, Hanamura I, Nakayama T, Tani H, Takami A Abstract Although patients with cancer and immunosuppression are at a risk of functional hyposplenism, how to detect it promptly remains unclear. Since hyposplenism allows erythrocytes with nuclear remnants (Howell-Jolly bodies [HJBs]) to appear in the peripheral blood, HJB detection by a routine microscopic examination may help identify patients with functional hyposplenism. This prospective study was thus performed to determine the underlying diseases in patients who presented with HJBs. Of 100 consecutive patients presenting with HJBs, 73 had a history of splenectomy. The remaining 27 had hematologic cancer (n = 6, 22%), non-hematologic cancer (n = 8, 30%), hepatic disorders (n = 4, 15%), premature neonates (n = 3, 11%), hemolytic anemia (n = 2, 7%), autoimmune disorders (n = 2, 7%) and miscellaneous diseases (n = 2, 7%), and their prior treatments included chemotherapy (n = 8, 30%), steroids (n = 7, 26%) and molecular-targeted therapy (n = 3, 11%). Among the 27 patients, 22 had computed tomography scans available: 3 (14%) had underlying diseases in the spleen, and the remaining 19 (86%) were all found to have a decreased splen...
Source: International Journal of Hematology - Category: Hematology Authors: Tags: Int J Hematol Source Type: research