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A significant reduction (30%) in the amount of postoperative blood loss from 1.12 to 0.70 ml/kg/h was noted in pediatric patients subjected to cardiopulmonary bypass for congenital heart disease surgery when the activated whole blood clotting time was utilized to monitor anticoagulant therapy. However, no difference in the incidence (11 %) of postoperative hemorrhage was noted. Extensive preoperative laboratory hemo-stasis testing and routine immediate postoperative use of platelet transfusion and fresh frozen plasma (in cyanotic heart defects) failed to predict or correct those patients with significant postoperative hemorrhage.

Bone marrow granulocyte reserves and the bone marrow storage pool were evaluated in 10 Jordanian adult patients with chronic benign idiopathic neutropenia, by measurement of the peripheral blood granulocyte increment following the administration of hydrocortisone and lithium. The increment in each case was statistically significant, indicating retention of effective neutrophil production in stressful situations and thus the benignity of this disorder.

Ineffective erythropoiesis occurred during desacetyl vinblastine amide sulfate (VDS) therapy of a patient with metastatic Ewing's sarcoma. The peripheral blood was characterized by anisocytosis, poikilocytosis and reticulocytopenia. Bone marrow showed megaloblastic red cell hyperplasia with nuclear fragmentation, binuclearity and abnormal metaphases. Radioiron incorporation into red cells was markedly decreased. Electron microscopy showed red cell surface changes previously called ropalocytosis. Normal erythropoiesis promptly resumed when VDS treatment was withheld. Although less common than leukopenia, red cell abnormalities are part of the spectrum of vinca alkaloid toxicity.