Abstract

Autoimmune diseases are increasingly being found to be a significant cause of morbidity in the general population. And it has been observed that hematological parameters are altered in these conditions. This study was done to investigate the changes in routine hematological parameters in cases of autoimmune diseases presenting at a tertiary care center.
 
Methodology: This was a hospital based retrospective study done over a 2-month period. The demographic data and clinical diagnosis of the patients were accessed from the hospital medical records division and the records in the haematology laboratory.
Results: There was a total of 84 cases of which females were predominant. There were 54 cases of Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), followed by 15 cases of SLE. The remaining were of other autoimmune diseases. Anemia was seen to be the commonest hematological manifestation, followed by eosinopenia, leukocytosis and neutrophilia. Other findings included lymphocytosis, thrombocytosis, thrombocytopenia and eosinophilia. Anemia was seen in most of the RA cases followed closely by leukocytosis and thrombocytosis. Leukocytosis was more evident in the female RA patients.70% of the systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) cases also had anemia, followed by leukocytosis in 40%.
Conclusion: Hematological abnormalities are commonly seen in autoimmune diseases. The most common abnormality can be an anemia presenting as the earliest manifestations of an underlying autoimmune disorder. This study attempts to re-establish the importance of reviewing the basic hematological parameters carefully and considering the presence of an autoimmune etiology in patients with hematological changes