Autoimmune Cytopenias

A team of clinicians from centers in the US and Europe systematically evaluated recombinant EPO safety and efficacy in an international European cohort of patients with autoimmune hemolytic anemia. They found that in the majority of patients, EPO levels were inappropriately low compared with hemoglobin levels, and postulate that recombinant EPO “may interrupt the vicious circle, by priming the reticulocyte compensation, sustaining erythropoiesis and leaving time for the resolution of the autoimmune flare [thereby] avoiding excessive immune-suppression.”