Addison's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Addison's Disease, including details on chronic adrenal insufficiency, treatment, causes, medication.

Successful treatment of refractory immune hemolysis following unrelated cord blood transplant with Campath-1H.

Chao MM, Levine JE, Ferrara JL, Cooling L, Cooke KR, Hutchinson RJ, Yanik GA

Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.

Immune-mediated hemolytic anemia is a well-recognized complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. We report on a 6-year-old boy with X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy who developed severe delayed alloimmune hemolytic anemia associated with immune-mediated neutropenia and thrombocytopenia following major ABO incompatible unrelated cord blood transplantation. The patient's cytopenias were refractory to treatment with corticosteroids, cyclosporine, intravenous immune globulin, rituximab, and pentostatin. After one course of Campath-1H his hematologic parameters normalized, suggesting that the compound may be an effective therapy for complex immunohematologic disorders complicating hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The case also emphasizes the importance of T-cells in transplant associated immune cytopenias.

Published 25 February 2008 in Pediatr Blood Cancer, 50(4): 917-9.
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