PHAGOCYTOSIS OF RED BLOOD-CELLS AFTER TRANSFUSION

Abstract

A patient suffering from an extreme anemia, resembling the primary pernicious type, was admitted to St. Luke's Hospital on the service of Dr. Theodore C. Janeway. Immediately following transfusion, smears of the peripheral blood showed great numbers of polymorphonuclear neutrophil leukocytes containing red blood cells. The picture was so unique and so suggestive as to certain results of transfusion that it seemed worth reporting. REPORT OF CASE Abstract of History.tory. —The patient was a man of 48, who for eight years had lived in Porto Rico. His health was excellent up to about eight months before his admission, from which time he dated his illness. At first he lost appetite. began to be drowsy and easily fatigued, and lost weight. Later he had diarrhea. passing mucus but no blood. This had recurred at intervals up to the time he was seen. He had had one period of improvement, but