Autoerythrocyte Sensitization Successfully Treated With Antidepressants

Abstract

AUTOERYTHROCYTE sensitization was first described in 1955 by Gardner and Diamond¹as a syndrome of recurrent, painful bruising largely confined to the extremities. An autoimmune sensitization to the patient's own RBCs was postulated as the underlying mechanism, since typical symptoms were reproduced by intracutaneous injection of patients with their own RBCs but not by other injected agents. Neither normal individuals nor patients with erythema nodosum reacted to autologous RBC injection. In an extensive review of this disorder, Ratnoff²noted 100 cases, 95% of them female, with the most common age at onset of 14 to 40 years. Trauma or surgery, originally thought to be precipitants, has been absent in many subsequent patients. Bruising is usually preceded by a prodrome of burning, painful paresthesias in the involved extremity or by some systemic symptom such as malaise, headache, or gastrointestinal (GI) disturbance. Lesions begin with an area of warmth, erythema, and