Abstract Early mortality in sickle cell disease (SCD) is attributed to increased infections due to loss of splenic function. Marginal zone B cells are important for initial opsonization of pathogens and can be absent in spleen histopathology in SCD. The frequency of unswitched memory B cells (UMBC), the circulating correlate of marginal zone B cells, reflects the immunologic function of the spleen. We hypothesized that asplenia in SCD is associated with alterations in the peripheral blood lymphocyte population and explored whether UMBC deficiency was associated with a clinical phenotype. We an ..read more

Abstract The Phase 2 portion of this study evaluated safety and efficacy of polatuzumab vedotin 1.8 mg/kg and venetoclax 800 mg, plus fixed-dose obinutuzumab 1000 mg or rituximab 375 mg/m2 in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) follicular lymphoma (FL) or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), respectively. Patients with complete response (CR) or partial response (PR)/stable disease (FL) or CR/PR (DLBCL) at end of induction (EOI; six 21-day cycles) received post-induction therapy with venetoclax and obinutuzumab or rituximab, respectively. Primary endpoint was CR rate at EOI. Safety-evalua ..read more

Abstract Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and non-anemic iron deficiency (NAID) are highly prevalent among non-pregnant females of reproductive age. Canada has no national screening guidelines for this population. Screening, when performed, is often with a complete blood count alone without ferritin or iron indices. The primary objective was to determine the prevalence of screening for NAID and IDA over a 3-year period in non-pregnant females of reproductive age who had tests performed at outpatient laboratories in Ontario, Canada. Retrospective cohort study of non-pregnant females ages 15–54 in O ..read more

American Journal of Hematology, EarlyView ..read more

Abstract Congenital Dyserythropoietic Anemia type I (CDA I) is a rare hereditary condition characterized by macrocytic/normocytic anemia, splenomegaly, iron overload, and distinct abnormalities during late erythropoiesis, particularly internuclear bridges between erythroblasts. Diagnosis of CDA I remains challenging due to its rarity, clinical heterogeneity, and overlapping phenotype with other rare hereditary anemias. In this case series, we present 36 patients with suspected CDA I. A molecular diagnosis was successfully established in 89% of cases, identifying 16 patients with CDA I through ..read more

Retraction: Feng, C-J., Zhao, P., Fu, H-X., Yan, C-H., Wang, C-C., Zhu, X-L., He, Y., Wang, F-R., Zhang, Y-Y., Mo, X-D., Kong, Y., Han, W., Wang, J-Z., Wang, Y., Chen, H., Chen, Y-H., Zhao, X-Y., Chang, Y-J., Xu, L-P., Liu, K-Y., Huang, X-J., Zhang, X-H. (2023) A predictive model of herpes zoster after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: VZV reactivation following antiviral prophylaxis discontinuation. American Journal of Hematology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajh.27090. The above article, published online on 29 September 2023 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has ..read more

Brentuximab vedotin and allogeneic transplant provides long term survival in relapsed PTCL patients after AHCT. Abstract Autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT) is often used as a consolidation for patients with peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) due to the poor prognosis associated with this heterogenous group of disorders. However, a significant number of patients will experience post-AHCT disease relapse. Here, we report a retrospective study of consecutive 124 patients with PTCLs who underwent AHCT from 2008 to 2020. With a median follow-up of 6.01 years following AHCT, 49 ..read more

Abstract A recently approved drug that induces erythroid cell maturation (luspatercept) has been shown to improve anemia and reduce the need for blood transfusion in non-transfusion-dependent as well as transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia (BT) patients. Although these results were predominantly positive, not all the patients showed the expected increase in hemoglobin (Hb) levels or transfusion burden reduction. Additional studies indicated that administration of luspatercept in transfusion-dependent BT was associated with increased erythropoietic markers, decreased hepcidin levels, and increas ..read more

American Journal of Hematology, EarlyView ..read more

Intra-uterine reduction of Hb Bart's only reached with exchange transfusions ..read more