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Children's infantile pycnocytosis
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The children's infantile pycnocytosis, which is not a persistent hereditary pathology and has a transient character and a favorable prognosis, also applies to diseases caused by a disorder in the structure of lipids of the erythrocyte membrane.
The etiology of the disease is unknown.
It is suggested that infantile pycnocytosis is a syndrome observed in a number of conditions: in premature infants after hemolytic anemia, renal insufficiency, in newborns deficient in G-6-PD, in infections, possibly with a deficiency of vitamin E.
The pycnocyte is an erythrocyte of irregular shape, intensely colored, having a number of subulate appendages, usually smaller than normal erythrocyte.
The minimum degree of pycnocytosis is observed in children of the first 3 months of life, and it is most pronounced in premature infants. It was found that full-term newborns contain 0.3-1.9% of pycnocytes, while in preterm infants 0.3-5.6% of pycnocytes are contained. In adults, their number does not exceed 0.3%. After 3 months of age, the amount of pycnocytes decreases sharply. If, for any reason, it does not decrease and reaches 30-50%, clinical signs of the disease appear.
Clinically, pycnocytosis is characterized by jaundice, anemia and splenomegaly. Jaundice can be absent until the third week of life, and the phenomenon of anemia can occur at the age of 1 month. The severity of the hemolytic process is parallel to the amount of pycnocytes in the peripheral blood.
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