Red Cell Survival in Patients with Aortic Valve Disease.

The increased destruction of red cells after some corrective cardiac procedures has been recognized (Neill, Farman, Sigler, and Bahnsen, 1961; Sayed, Dacie, Handley, Lewis, and Cleland, 1961; Verdon, Forrester, and Crosby, 1963; Gehrmann and Loogen, 1964; Marsh, 1964; Reed and Dunn, 1964; Stevenson and Baker, 1964). Despite increased haemolysis, anaemia is not always present, since a normal bone marrow is capable of increasing red cell production six or seven times in response to a sustained demand. Red cell survival in a chronic haemolytic state may be reduced from 120 to 20 days, but the bone marrow may be able to maintain a normal red cell count in the peripheral blood. Anaemia results only when red cells are destroyed faster than they can be produced by the bone marrow (Fig. 1). An