ANEMIA SECONDARY TO PENICILLIN TREATMENT: STUDIES ON TWO PATIENTS WITH "NON-ALLERGIC" SERUM HEMAGGLUTININS.

Abstract

Abstract In two patients being treated with large doses of penicillin, progressive anemia developed which was severe enough to require several transfusions. Reticulocytosis and a positive direct Coombs antiglobulin reaction appeared during therapy. The sera of both patients contained antibodies which agglutinated penicillin-sensitized human erythrocytes in vitro. Neither patient was clinically allergic to penicillin. In hemagglutinin. inhibition studies, their sera showed little affinity for penicillin and the more antigenic hapten, penicilloyl ϵ-aminocaproate, in marked contrast to comparable studies on hemagglutinin from patients allergic to penicillin. It is possible that the agglutinins in these two patients were specific for an erythrocyte antigen which was exposed or produced by the action of penicillin in vivo and in vitro.