WAIHA is the most common type of autoimmune hemolytic anemia. It is usually associated with warm reacting (37°C) IgG antibodies.
WAIHA may be idiopathic or secondary to a pathologic disorder (eg, systemic lupus erythematosus).
Clinical symptoms associated with WAIHA
If significant anemia is present, patients may exhibit pallor, weakness, dizziness, jaundice, dyspnea, and fever.
Possible laboratory findings - Positive direct antiglobulin test (DAT). It's important to obtain an adequate patient history, including previous transfusions and current medications to help establish the cause of the positive DAT.
- Erythrocyte morphology abnormalities, as seen in the Wright-stained peripheral blood smear image on the right.
- Polychromatophilic red cells(A--green arrows)
- Spherocytes (B--blue arrows)
- Schistocytes (C--red arrows)
- Nucleated red blood cells (D-- orange arrow)
