Haematology Flashcards
What are the 2 main lineages of blood?
Myeloid & lymphoid
What cell types are included in the myeloid lineage?
erythrocytes platelets neutrophils eosinophils basophils monocytes macrophages dendritic cells
What cells types are included in the lymphoid lineage?
T and B lymphocytes
NK (natural killer) cells
What is CD34 used for?
CD34 is a cell surface glycoprotein. It is an important immunophenotypic marker of HSCs. Small numbers of HSC are usually present in the blood, but increase in number when the marrow is recovering from damage inflicted by cytotoxic drugs or following administration of G-CSF. G-CSF is used to mobilise stem cells into the blood for harvesting for HSC tranpslants.
Where does haemotopoiesis occur in the foetus?
At the beginnign of gestation: occurs as transient primitive waves in the extra-embryonic yolk sac. Definitive HSCs the n start to appear in the aorta-gonadal-mesonephros (AGM) region of the developing embryo. HSC then migrate to the foetal liver and then to the bone marrow
Where does haematopoiesis occur in adults?
Red marrow of bone marrow, only found in axial skeleton
What is extramedullary haematopoiesis?
When haematopoiesis occurs in liver and spleen - this occurs in certain pathologies such as myelofibrosis or untreated thalassaemia
What are the 6 important examples of Haematopoietic growth factors?
Erythropoietin - erythryoid Thrombopoietin - platelets G-CSF and GM-CSF - granulocyte, myeloid IL-5 - eosinophils IL-3 - stem cell and early progenitors IL-7 - lymphoid
What are the uses of erythropoietin?
Renal failure
Treatment of anaemia
For patients donating their own blood prior to elective surgery
Jehovah’s Witnesses (instead of transfusions)
What are the side effects of Epo?
hypertension (dose-dependent), thrombosis, thrombophlebitis
What is Granulocyte CSF (G-CSF) used for?
- Primary or secondary prevention of infections in neutropenic patients
- Mobilisation of stem cells into peripheral blood for stem cell harvests for haematopoietic stem cell transplants
What is Thrombopoitin used for?
Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP)
Myelodysplasia
Post chemotherapy
How is bone marrow testing carried out?
Sampling bone marrow usually from iliac crest.
Bone marrow trephine - core of bone marrow used to examine overall cellularity and architecture of bone marrow
Bone marrow aspirates - used to assess morphology / numbers of haematopoietic cells at different stages of differentiation and identify normal malignant filtrates
What two cells are the immediate precursors to red blood cells?
Normoblasts and reticulocytes
What two cells are the immediate precursors to monocytes?
Monoblasts and promonocytes
Where is thrombopoietin produced?
Mainly by the liver
Where is erythropoietin produced?
90% in the kidney
10% in the liver
What is the main stimulus to erythropoietin?
Hypoxia
What is the earliest recognisable erythroid cell in the marrow?
Proerythroblast (also called pronormoblast)
What is the difference between reticulocytes and erythrocytes?
Immature erythrocytes, containing some ribosomal RNA
What are leukemias?
Cancers of haematopoietic cells which arise in the marrow and spread to involve blood and lymph nodes / spleen
What are lymphomas?
Cancers of cells in the lymph nodes / spleen which spread to involve bone marrow and blood
What are myelomas?
malignancy of plasma cells (in marrow)
What are myeloproliferative disease & myelodysplasia?
neoplastic chronic abnormal myeloid proliferation
