Abstract
A case of childhood acute hemolytic anemia following parvovirus infection provided an hypothesis for the high frequency of Donath-Landsteiner antibodies and inappropriately low reticulocyte counts in this disease. A 3-year-old boy with hematuria and jaundice was found to have autoimmune hemolytic anemia due to a biphasic IgG Donath-Landsteiner antibody. Despite profound anemia (hematocrit 14.5%), the reticulocyte count was low (1.0%) and examination of his normocellular bone marrow showed erythroid hypoplasia. A clinical diagnosis 2 weeks earlier of acute parvovirus B19 was serologically confirmed as the associated antecedent infection. Hemolytic anemia resolved with packed red cell transfusion, and intravenous immune globulin and steroid treatment. The high-frequency red cell P antigen is both the unusual specificity of Donath-Landsteiner antibody and the viral receptor for parvovirus infection of red cell precursors. We speculate that interaction of the virus with its receptor may change antigenicity such that anti-P autoantibody forms. Parvovirus B19 may be a primary cause of reticulocytopenic postinfectious hemolytic anemia in children.
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