Acquired pure red cell aplasia - A rare cause of immunologically mediated anemia

Abstract

Introduction: Pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) is a rare disorder presenting as severe transfusion dependent anemia. PRCA can be congenital that presents during early years of life or it can be acquired [1, 2, 3]. Among acquired causes it can be idiopathic or due to viral infections, drugs, malignancies, thymoma, connective tissue diseases or pregnancy [2, 4, 5, 6]. Its diagnosis is based on finding normocytic anemia with reticulocytopenia on peripheral blood film and decreased or absent erythroid precursors on bone marrow examination.7Treatment involves removal of possible causative agent, erythrocyte transfusions and use of corticosteroids or immunosuppressive agents in resistant cases. We report a case of idiopathic pure red cell aplasia that presented during pregnancy [3, 4, 5]

Keywords: Dengue fever, Aplastic anemia, Pakistan.