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.
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