Hereditary elliptocytic haemolytic anaemia.

The erythrocytes of the camel are normally oval, whereas in man such cells are exceptional and comprise only 1 to 15% of the red cells of most normal people. A pathological increase in oval cells is found in some cases of iron deficiency and other microcytic anaemias, and there may commonly be more than 250% of oval cells among the erythrocytes in macrocytic anaemia (Florman and Wintrobe, 1938). Such symptomatic elliptocytosis (syn. ovalocytosis) is to be differentiated from hereditary elliptocytosis, which was first described by Dresbach in 1904. In the hereditary condition, rod forms are common in addition to the more oval elliptocytes, and altogether the abnormally shaped cells may constitute 50(90°, of all the red cells (Wintrobe, 1956). Rod forms are not usually found among the elliptocytes of normal or anaemic blood. Hereditary elliptocytosis is transmitted as a simple Mendelian dominant, either sex being affected. It is said to occur in about 0.04% of the general American population (Wyandt, Bancroft, and Winship, 1941). Amongst affected people, the trait is said to be quite harmless in 880 of cases (Penfold and Lipscomb, 1943). but in the remainder haemolysis occurs with or without anaemia. In the present paper an affected family is described, of which one member also suffered from haemolytic anaemia and was cured of this by splenectomy. Case Report