Prognosis in Autoimmune Hæmolytic Anæmia

SUMMARY Factors reported to influence the prognosis for patients with autoimmune hæmolytic anæmia are reviewed and compared with experience at the Postgraduate Medical School, London. In the idiopathic warm‐antibody type of hæmolytic anæmia, prognosis depends on the amount of antibody formed and its quality. Of 50 patients in the London series, 23 died, mostly within two years of the onset of the disease, whilst 10 underwent clinical and hæmatological cure. The idiopathic cold‐antibody type of disease is in general not so serious ; nine patients in the London series of 16 have survived for five years or more, and not all deaths have been related to the disease or its treatment. The prognosis in cases of secondary autoimmune hæmolytic anæmia is dominated by the nature of the underlying disease.