There is no objection to the use of citrated blood for pernicious
anæmia, so that the transfusion can be carried out in the ordinary
way described in Chapter VII. It is necessary, however, to utter a
warning as to the choice of a blood donor. It is quite clear that
in some patients, whose disease has been diagnosed as pernicious
anæmia, there is an alteration in the reactions of the serum. The
corpuscles may show an agglutination which conforms to one of the
group tests described in Chapter VI; nevertheless, it is essential in
addition that the patient’s serum should be tested directly against
the corpuscles of the proposed donor, even if he belongs to Group
IV, whose corpuscles are not agglutinated by the serum of any normal
person. I was recently asked to transfuse a patient whose disease
had been diagnosed as pernicious anæmia. Her red blood cells had
fallen to 600,000 per cmm., so that she was probably in the last
stages. Her corpuscles were agglutinated only by serum of Group
III, so that she apparently belonged to Group II. Only two donors
were available, both of whom belonged to Group IV. Nevertheless,
the patient’s serum strongly agglutinated the corpuscles of both of
them, so that I considered it inadvisable to carry out the treatment.
Similar abnormalities have been noticed by others. It seems to be
a universal experience that slight reactions are more commonly met
with after transfusion for pernicious anæmia than when it is done
for other conditions, although these do not in any way prejudice
the results that are obtained. These reactions are possibly to be
explained by abnormalities, though of slight degree, in the patient’s
serum. In a case such as I have described the reaction would
probably be very severe, if not fatal. It is possible also that a
well-marked alteration in the serum reaction is not characteristic
of the clinical entity constituting true pernicious anæmia, but in
reality indicates that there is another underlying cause for the
anæmia, such as an undiagnosed carcinoma. Dr. Joekes has recently
(August 1921) told me that he believes from his own observations that
this is actually the case, but it needs to be established by further
investigation. The connexion between malignant disease and abnormal
serum reactions is referred to elsewhere (p. 93).
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