Antiglobulin-Positive Hemolytic Anemias

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present practical clinical methods of diagnosis and treatment of this group of anemias. We^* have treated 104 cases of this type of anemia occurring in 369 consecutive cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia as well as many associated with other diseases or of unknown cause. From this experience, we have learned many things. This paper is not intended to review the literature, which has been done well by several authors.^1-7 In order to place this group of diseases in proper perspective relative to other anemias, see Tables 1, 2, and 3, which give our current classification of the anemias but give the detailed subdivisions for only the group discussed. We have used the term "antiglobulin-positive type" to characterize this group of related cases even though some of these have negative Coombs or bromelin tests. Note that there is no place for such terms