Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia in HIV: A Case Series and Review of the Literature.
Authors: Wu David P.H. , Caperna Joseph , Reid Erin 
Published: October 2019

Background: Patients infected with HIV are more likely to have positive direct antiglobulin tests (Toy, Am J of Hem 1985) but there have only been a few reports of HIV-related AIHA (autoimmune hemolytic anemia) in the literature. Here we report three new cases of AIHA in HIV infected patients diagnosed from July 2003 to September 2005 at UCSD.

Methods: Patients were identified by clinical presentation to the HIV service. All cases were considered highly likely by hematologists to have AIHA (lab data table 1).

Results: Patient #1 was a 43 yo Caucasian male with CD4 < 50 prior ITP and untreated recently diagnosed visceral KS. On presentation, he reported dyspnea and had hepatosplenomegaly. His Hb was 5.2, retic 14%, LDH 459, Ibili 0.7, haptoglobin <7; + microspherocytes on smear. He was started on high-dose glucocorticoids (GC) before PRBC transfusion, and tolerated it well other than one fever to 100F. He received prednisone (pred) 60mg daily with taper. 3 weeks later at follow-up he self-tapered pred to 20mg and Hb was 11.1. Once off pred, his Hb remained stable at 11 when he died from PML approximately 4 months after remission of AIHA. Patient #2 is a 43 yo Latino male presenting with syncope, dizziness, dyspnea and palpations. His Hb was 5.4, retic 8%, LDH 366, Ibili 1.2, haptoglobin < 7, with smears showing extensive microspherocytes. He was treated with high-dose GC and received PRBC with heparin prophylaxis. His Hb recovered to 12. He was tapered off GC over 8 months and remains in remission for the past 2 months with Hb 14. Patient #3 is a 38 yo Latino male with dyspnea. His Hb was 5.7, retic 8%. He symptomatically improved with PRBC, and subsequently had a rapid response to GC. Hb peaked at 13.5 through tapering of pred by 10 mg weekly to 30 mg daily. The patient missed follow-up and continued the rapid taper, hemolysis recurred 1 month after pred cessation. Pred 60mg qd was restarted with resolution of hemolysis; this recurred even with slow taper (2mg/week) below 20mg daily. Pred again increased to 60 mg daily and danazol 600mg bid added with resolution of hemolysis. Pred taper to 20 mg was tolerated.

Conclusions: AIHA in HIV patients has been described mainly in single case reports and abstracts (Koduri, Am Jo Hematology 2002). Only a few reports include long-term follow-up and fewer have included precipitants for AIHA. Within 2 years, we have three HIV patients with documented AIHA under different clinical manifestations and responses to treatment. One patient had a recent diagnosis of KS, the 2nd had received penicillin for syphilis and the 3rd had no recent medical complications. All 3 patients tolerated transfusion which resulted in symptomatic improvement and responded successfully to pred. Patient #3 who had a high CD4, was the only one with recurrence of hemolysis upon pred taper; perhaps a higher CD4 count may be associated with more persistent AIHA. In the literature, there are 14 other cases of idiopathic AIHA in adults with HIV (summary table to be presented at meeting). Of the 6 cases with reported CD4 counts, all were less than 200. 4/14 cases had inadequate reticulocyte response demonstrating existence of additional factors contributing to anemia. Most cases (10/14) responded to standard AIHA treatments including GC, IVIG and splenectomy. Overall 5/14 had died at the time of the reports; 2 of these deaths were related to PCP after remission of AIHA. 2/8 cases receiving PRBC died of DIC that occurred after transfusion.

Table 1 Case Hb gm/dl Retic % LDH IU/L Hapto mg/dl IBili mg/dl CD4 #/ml 1 5.2 13.9 459 <7 0.9 82 2 5.4 8.1 366 <7 1.2 86 3 5.7 8.1 317 <7 2.1 424