Sideroblastic Information and Courses from MediaLab, Inc.
These are the MediaLab courses that cover Sideroblastic and links to relevant pages within the course.
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| More on Pappenheimer bodies Pappenheimer bodies, while visible on a Wright's stained smear, should be Perls' Prussian blue stain, which is specific for iron. Pappenheimer bodies are seen in certain types of anemia characterized by an increase in the storage of iron, such as sideroblastic anemia and thallassemia. These inclusions are also seen in the peripheral blood following a splenectomy. In a healthy person with a normal spleen, Pappenheimer bodies are destroyed before the erythrocytes enter the peripheral circulation. | View Page |
| Increase Marrow Iron Stores Markely increased stainable iron is present in this biopsy. Iron stores may be increased in sideroblastic anemia, chronic infections, hemochromatosis, hemosiderosis due to numerous blood transfusions, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and uremia. | View Page |
| Ring Sideroblasts This slide shows a marrow aspiration smear with numerous ring sideroblasts. Normal red cell precursors have only one or at most two granules of iron in their cytoplasm. These abnormal red cell precursors have numerous iron containing granules in their cytoplasm indicating abnormal iron incorporation. This iron is actually incorporated into mitochondria. Ring sideroblasts can be seen in idiopathic sideroblastic anemia, and in sideroblastic anemia induced by drugs, lead poisoning, and alcohol abuse. | View Page |
| Match the form of red cell inclusions in each of the frames of photographs with a corresponding clinical condition. | View Page |
| Cells as shown in this iron-stained bone marrow preparation are found in each of the following conditions except: | View Page |
| Pappenheimer bodies Pappenheimer bodies are iron-containing granules that aggregate with mitochondria and are deposited in RBC or normoblast cytoplasm. Small and irregular, they are found only in pathological states as thalassemia and sideroblastic anemias(upper image). Wright-Giemsa stain defines the cytoplasmic content (protein), but Prussian blue staining is necessary to define the iron content, the essence of the Pappenheimer body (lower image). Pappenheimer bodies lie typically in small clusters (upper image) and tend to locate at the periphery of the red cell cytoplasm. A cluster is typically smaller than a single Howell-Jolly body. | View Page |
| Hereditary ovalocytosis and elliptocytosis Ovalocytes are rod shaped erythrocytes with nearly parallel lateral walls. If the long axis of an erythrocyte is no more than twice as long as the short axis, the cell is an ovalocyte. If the long axis is more than twice as long as the short axis, the cell is an elliptocyte. Hemoglobin tends to collect at each end of these cells. The ends of the cells are rounded and never pointed, to be differentated from sickle cells. Ovalocytes present in greater than 25% of red cells on the blood smear are characteristic of hereditary ovalocytosis. The oval shape is attributed to a defect in horizontal red cell membrane protein interactions. Lesser numbers of circulating ovalocytes may be present in various anemias including megaloblastic, sideroblastic, iron deficiency, and in thalassemias. A rare ovalocyte (less than 1%) may be found on almost any peripheral blood smear. Resistance to malarial infection may be a beneficial attribute of hereditary ovalocytosis. | View Page |
| Summary of Anisocytosis Anisocytosis is a general term reflecting increased variation in the size of red blood cells. The MCV will be within normal limits, but RDW will be increased. Variation usually affects a continuum of red cell sizes, but occasionally two distinct red cell populations can be observed(for example in sideroblastic anemia, or after red cell transfusion.) | View Page |