July 2018 — Hematopathology

By MCL Education • July 10, 2018

Share this:

Here, we report a case of a 56-year-old African-American female with a reported history of “alpha thal trait” found to have severe reticulocytopenic microcytic anemia requiring transfusion support. Her Hgb/Hct were 5.5 g/dL/16.5%, respectively with an MCV of 75.6 fL and  reticulocytopenia at 0.3 with a ferritin of 2292 ng. Further investigation revealed a baseline anemia (9 g/dL) that had recently worsened. Analysis by HGB electrophoresis revealed trace Barts with no additional abnormal peaks, and MLPA analysis of the alpha globin gene cluster detected a single gene -3.7 deletion suggesting carrier status, which was discordant with the severity of her clinical picture. A bone marrow biopsy revealed the following:

	Maggie DiGuardo, M.D. Fellow, Molecular Genetic Pathology Mayo Clinic
	Jennifer Oliveira, M.D. Consultant, Hematopathology Mayo Clinic Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology Mayo Clinic College of Medicine

MCL Education

This post was developed by our Education and Technical Publications Team.