Red blood cell count and RDWI are the most reliable discrimination indices in differentiation between betaTT and IDA.

Three pediatric and two adult Turkish patients with Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) induced hemophagocytic syndrome (HPS) were admitted to Ondokuz Mayis University Hospital, which is in the Middle Black Sea Region of Turkey. All of them had remarkable hemophagocytosis in the bone marrow with severe bleeding symptoms along with the other known clinical and laboratory findings of CCHF. We would like to present these patients and to discuss the pathophysiology and the effect of acquired HPS on the severity of the disease. Am. J. Hematol., 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

We wanted to describe the hematologic manifestations of celiac disease (CD) in childhood. This study included 22 children with CD in whom the disease remained undiagnosed until they had presented with hematological abnormalities, such as anemia, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia or prolonged prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT). Anemia was present alone in 19 (86.3%) patients, and leukopenia coexisted with anemia in 2 (9%) patients. Thrombocytopenia was found alone in 1 (4.5%) patient. Twelve patients had an iron deficiency anemia. Iron deficiency coexisted with zinc and vitamin B₁₂ deficiency in 3 patients, copper and vitamin B₁₂ deficiency in two, vitamin B₁₂ deficiency in two, zinc deficiency in two and one patient had combined iron, zinc, and copper deficiency. Males had significantly lower values of hemoglobin (p < 0.05) and MCV (p < 0.05) compared to the females. In conclusion CD should be included in the differential diagnosis in children who present with anemia, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia or prolonged PT and APTT, especially in geographical areas where the prevalence of the CD is high.

The authors compared the prognosis in 50 children with acute immune thrombocytopenicpurpura (ITP) who received intravenous immunoglobulin G (IVIG), megadose methylprednisolone (MDMP), or no therapy. Twenty-six children were observed with no therapy, 12 children received IVIG, and 12 children received MDMP. The percentage of the patients whose platelet counts increased at a level of > 20 x 10(9)/L and > 50 x 10(9)/L at 3 days after starting therapy was significantly higher in both IVIG and MDMP groups than in the no therapy group (p < .01), but there was no significant difference at 10 and 30 days after initiation between the 3 groups (p > .05 in each comparison). This result suggested that therapy does not increase the rate of recovery but shortens the duration of thrombocytopenia in the first days. Management derision in ITP is made on clinical condition rather than on platelet count and no treatment options is to be preferred even in the face of mucosal bleeding. If the patient has extensive bleeding and the decision is to treat, both IVIG and MDMP are equally effective in providing a safe platelet level early on.

A high serum sCD44 level and/or tumor tissue expression at diagnosis is associated with poor prognostic criteria and/or unfavorable outcome in childhood leukemias and lymphomas.