title: Immune Hemolysis: Diagnosis and Treatment Recommendations.
abstract: Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) is a heterogeneous disease usually classified as warm, cold [cold agglutinin disease (CAD)] or mixed, according to the thermal range of the autoantibody. Diagnosis is based on the direct antiglobulin test (DAT), typically positive with anti-IgG antisera in warm AIHA and anti-C3d in CAD. Diagnostic pitfalls are due to IgA autoantibodies, warm IgM, low-affinity IgG, or IgG below the threshold of sensitivity, and about 5% of AIHA remains DAT-negative. The treatment of AIHA is still not evidence-based. Corticosteroids are the first-line therapy for warm AIHA. For refractory/relapsed cases, the choice is between splenectomy (effective in ~70% cases but with a presumed cure rate of 20%) and rituximab (effective in ~70%-80% of cases), which is becoming the preferred second-line treatment, and thereafter any of the immunosuppressive drugs (azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil). Rituximab is now recommended as first-line treatment for CAD. Additional therapies are intravenous immunoglobulins, danazol, and plasma exchange, with alemtuzumab and high-dose cyclophosphamide as the last options.
authors.affiliation: U.O. Oncoematologia, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: wbarcel@policlinico.mi.it.
authors.forename: Wilma
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Barcellini
mesh_terms: D000744:Anemia, Hemolytic, Autoimmune / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic / Q000276:immunology; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D013156:Splenectomy; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic; D001323:Autoantibodies; C048844:anti-IgG