Premium
Relative incidence of agranulocytosis and aplastic anemia
Author(s) -
Kaufman David W.,
Kelly Judith P.,
Issaragrisil Surapol,
Laporte JoanRamon,
Anderson Theresa,
Levy Micha,
Shapiro Samuel,
Young Neal S.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american journal of hematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.456
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1096-8652
pISSN - 0361-8609
DOI - 10.1002/ajh.20489
Subject(s) - aplastic anemia , incidence (geometry) , medicine , etiology , dyscrasia , anemia , pediatrics , immunology , bone marrow , physics , plasma cell , optics
Agranulocytosis and aplastic anemia are both rare, life‐threatening blood dyscrasias. Agranulocytosis is mainly caused by medicines, whereas the etiology of aplastic anemia is largely unexplained. In two epidemiologic studies using the same methods, we observed a striking inverse relationship between the incidence of the two diseases in different regions, including five countries in Europe, and Israel and Thailand. The annual incidence of agranulocytosis ranged from 1.1 to 4.9 cases per million, and that of aplastic anemia, from 0.7 to 4.1 per million; the inverse correlation was consistent among the regions ( R 2 = 0.74). There is no clear explanation for this previously unreported pattern, but it seems unlikely to be due to methodology. Am. J. Hematol. 81:65–67, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.