DDx
Diagnostic Considerations
Elliptocytes may be observed in the blood smear in a wide variety of disorders; it is particularly common in iron-deficiency anemia. However, the percentage of elliptocytes in these conditions is usually low compared with that in hereditary elliptocytosis and its variants.
Pseudoelliptocytosis can occur as an artifact of blood film preparation. Pseudoelliptocytes are seen primarily at the tapered edge of a blood smear. They are not uniformly distributed.
Patients with hereditary elliptocytosis have also been found to have concurrent second hemolytic conditions such as glucose-6-phosphatase deficiency. This results in an additive effect on clinical severity. [12]
Differential Diagnoses
Media Gallery
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Cigar-shaped erythrocytes seen in hereditary elliptocytosis. Courtesy of Jean A. Shafer, BS, MA, Assistant Professor of Hematology and Pathology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.
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Schematic diagram of the components of the RBC membrane. Hereditary elliptocytosis can result from defects of alpha or beta spectrin or from a defective spectrin-actin-protein 4.1R junctional complex.
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Bizarre RBC morphology seen in hereditary pyropoikilocytosis. Courtesy of Jean A. Shafer, BS, MA, Assistant Professor of Hematology and Pathology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.
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