RELATION OF DISEASE OF THE LIVER TO ANEMIA

Abstract

Attention has been directed recently in Germany,¹Italy²and Austria,³as well as in this country,⁴to the occurrence of macrocytic anemia in association with disorders of the liver. The recognition of a hematologic picture in cases of disease of the liver resembling in many respects that of pernicious anemia is not new, as a review of the literature in an earlier communication^4aindicated. Nevertheless, little significance was attributed to the association, and it has been only with the recently renewed interest in hematology that several investigators, working independently, have rediscovered this type of anemia. In several respects the various observations are essentially in agreement. The anemia associated with disorders of the liver is rarely severe.⁵The macrocytosis affects the great majority of the red corpuscles,⁶which show relatively little variation in shape or size.⁷The lack of variation in the size of the corpuscles, however, does not