Platelet satellitism in autoimmune hemolytic anemia

I Ghariani; N Braham; S Hamzaoui; L Bekir

doi:10.1016/j.retram.2017.05.001

Platelet satellitism in autoimmune hemolytic anemia

Curr Res Transl Med. 2017 Apr-Jun;65(2):61-64. doi: 10.1016/j.retram.2017.05.001. Epub 2017 Jun 12.

Authors

I Ghariani¹, N Braham², S Hamzaoui³, L Bekir⁴

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of hematology, CHU Mongi Slim, 2046 La Marsa, Tunisia. Electronic address: gharianiines@gmail.com.
² Laboratory of hematology, CHU Farhat Hached, 4000 Sousse, Tunisia.
³ Department of internal medicine, CHU Mongi Slim, 2046 La Marsa, Tunisia.
⁴ Laboratory of hematology, CHU Mongi Slim, 2046 La Marsa, Tunisia.

PMID: 28619392
DOI: 10.1016/j.retram.2017.05.001

Abstract

Platelet satellitism is a rare phenomenon observed in blood smears obtained from blood anticoagulated with EDTA with an estimated frequency at 0.008%. It is characterized by platelet rosetting around neutrophils and in rare cases around other blood cells, which may causes pseudothrombocytopenia. Our case involves a 26-year-old female patient with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA). Blood smear with EDTA as an anticoagulant had platelet satellitism whereas the phenomenon was not observed in tubes with different anticoagulants (citrate, heparin) and capillary blood. This phenomenon was still observed four weeks after the patient's discharge. Furthermore, we discuss the possible pathophysiological mechanisms of platelet satellitism proposed in the literature. To our knowledge, this is the first case of platelet satellitism reported in AIHA.

Keywords: EDTA; Platelet satellitism; Pseudothrombocytopenia.

Publication types

Review