Nuclear extrusion by erythroblasts in the peripheral blood of a splenectomized patient.

Correspondence: Alberto M. Marmont, II Division of Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation Center, S. Martino’s Hospital, Genova, Italy The patient was a 43 year old man who had been hospitalized because of extensive second and third-degree burns. He developed a severe hemolytic anemia over 3 weeks after the burn accident; antiglobulin tests were negative, and there was no evidence of direct thermal injury to the red cells. He had been splenectomized 25 years earlier for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma of the spleen. In the absence of the “pitting” function of the spleen denucleation of late erythroblasts could be observed in peripheral blood smears.