2 February 2025 (Sunday) - H.E.

Slide Saturday Challenge – well, those are elliptocytes. But the expert answer does leave a little to be desired… whilst *some* elliptocytes are seen in iron deficiency and MDS, the amount seen here would rather indicate hereditary elliptocytosis (H.E.).
 
I can distinctly remember being told of the Palek and Lux classification of H.E. with seven distinct categories ranging from totally non-symptomatic microscopic anomaly through to severe transfusion dependent anaemia. But that would seem to have fallen into disuse – nothing came up in Google when I looked.
 
H.E. isn’t *that* common really. I’ve identified maybe half a dozen over the years. One in an eighty-six year-old chap who had gone though his entire life with no issues from the condition which only came to light as a chance finding when I looked at a blood film when he’d developed a chest infection after he’d had a heart attack.
 
Here’s a rather detailed dissertation on the matter.

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