Journal of Blood & Lymph

Hemolytic anemia is very common during pregnancy especially in malaria endemic areas and it is usually an autoimmune condition. Coombs negative or idiopathic hemolytic disease during pregnancy is very rare and it has not yet been described in sub-Saharan countries.

A 34-year-old grand-multiparous woman was referred at our facility at a gestation age of 22 weeks with features of severe anemia in pregnancy, and a history of receiving a blood transfusion (seven units). Several investigations including a Coomb’s test were done. However, there were hardly any derangements, except for initial low hemoglobin. Coombs negative haemolytic anaemia of unknown origin was the final concluded diagnosis. She was treated with a course of glucorticoids, hematenics and a total of 36 units of blood transfusion. She finally delivered a premature baby at 35 weeks of gestation. She recovered completely during puerperium and was discharged the seventh day postpartum with a hemoglobin of 10g/dl. She was lost to follow up.

Coombs Negative Hemolytic Anemia in pregnancy is likely to respond to blood transfusions in conjunction with glucocorticoid therapy.

Background

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most commonly encountered cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice. There are increasing evidences indicating that AF is associated with inflamation, abnormal hemostasis, fibrinolysis, thrombocytic and endothelial functions as well as creating a prothrombot.

Aflatoxins (AFS) are groups of toxin fungal toxins that are produced by different species of fungi such as Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus Parasiticus. In this study Aflatoxin and two adsorbents (Zeolite and Mycosorb) was added to diet to evaluate some blood biochemical and enzyme activities in broiler chickens. Zeolite and Mycosorb added into the treatment basal diets at 3 g/kg and 1 g/kg levels which is contaminated level of 0.5 (AF0.5) or 1 ppm (AF1) aflatoxin/kg.

A total of 189 broiler chicks were divided into 9 treatment groups: T1) Control, T2) AF0.5, T3) AF1, T4) Zeolite + (AF0.5), T5) Zeolite + (AF1), T6) Mycosorb + AF0.5, T7) Mycosorb + AF1, T8) Zeolite + Mycosorb + AF0 and T9) Zeolite + Mycosorb + AF1. The results showed that AFS in T2 and T3 groups in comparison with control caused a significant decrease in red blood cell, haematocrit and lymphocyte counts while the monocyte cell and hetrophil counts increased at the end of experiment (p < 0.05). The Billirubin values, Aspartate Transaminase (AST), Gamma Glutamil Transferase (GGT) and Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) activities in diets containing AFs (T2 & T3) increased significantly compared with the controls (p < 0.05). The addition of Mycosorb and Zeolite to the AFs containing diet significantly improved haematolagy parameters, billirubin value, and AST, GGT, LDH activities. The protective effect of Mycosorb (T6 & T7) was higher than that of Zeolite (T4 & T5) against the toxic effects of AFs. The results of this study showed that the addition of both organic and inorganic adsorbents to the AFs containing diet reduced the adverse effects of AF and could be helpful in a solution of aflatoxicosis problem in poultry.