A Rare Cause of Pancytopenia in an Exclusively Breastfed Infant

Journal of Pediatric Hematology/oncology
Aisha A Bobb-SempleBirte Wistinghausen

Abstract

Vitamin B12 (B12) deficiency in infancy can present with nonspecific symptoms. We report a 5-month old exclusively breastfed full-term infant with emesis, lethargy, progressive pancytopenia, hemolysis, hypofibrinogenemia, elevated lactate dehydrogenase and a hypercellular bone marrow with dyserythropoiesis. The B12 level in the serum was undetectable. The infant's lethargy resolved within 48 hours of intramuscular B12 injection, followed by rapid improvement of pancytopenia. The asymptomatic mother had a normal hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume, but undetectable B12 level and positive antibodies to intrinsic factor, consistent with pernicious anemia masked by folate supplementation in the mother but causing symptoms in her infant.

References

Aug 1, 1988·Archives of Disease in Childhood·A J McPheeT Beare
Feb 1, 1997·Pediatrics·E S EmeryR B Colletti
Jan 10, 2001·The Journal of Pediatrics·S A RasmussenK S Scanlon
May 20, 2008·Pediatric Hematology and Oncology·Idil Yenicesu
Aug 20, 2008·Food and Nutrition Bulletin·Maureen M Black
Oct 7, 2009·Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics·Dongwei MaoLin Li
Jan 22, 2010·European Journal of Paediatric Neurology : EJPN : Official Journal of the European Paediatric Neurology Society·Tomas HonzikJiri Zeman
Mar 1, 2010·Nutrients·Fiona O'Leary, Samir Samman
Jan 11, 2013·The New England Journal of Medicine·Sally P Stabler
Oct 12, 2013·Pediatric Blood & Cancer·Sarah DobrozsiAmanda Brandow
Sep 17, 2015·Advances in Nutrition·Julia L FinkelsteinPatrick J Stover
Jan 26, 2016·Pediatric Blood & Cancer·Gurpreet SinghRebecca L Sparkes

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Methods Mentioned

BETA
biopsy

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Anemia

Anemia develops when your blood lacks enough healthy red blood cells. Anemia of inflammation (AI, also called anemia of chronic disease) is a common, typically normocytic, normochromic anemia that is caused by an underlying inflammatory disease. Here is the latest research on anemia.

Related Papers

La semaine des hôpitaux : organe fondé par l'Association d'enseignement médical des hôpitaux de Paris
R WOLFF, F BESANCON
Journal of Pediatric Hematology/oncology
Fatma KamounMongia Hachicha
© 2022 Meta ULC. All rights reserved