Aplastic Anemia

A PLASTIC anemia was first described by Ehrlich in 1888. It is not a single disease but, rather, a group of disorders characterized by peripheral-blood pancytopenia, variable bone-marrow hypocellularity, and the absence of underlying malignant or myeloproliferative disease. "Aplastic pancytopenia" would be a more accurate name, but Chauffard's original term has persisted. This review summarizes current concepts of the pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of marrow aplasias. The interested reader is referred to several excellent monographs for further data and references.1 2 3 4 5 Normal HematopoiesisNormal hematopoiesis occurs within a specialized physical and functional microenvironment.6 Thus, although fetal hematopoiesis originates in the . . .