Variability of findings due to seasonal alterations and number of attacks in warm-type autoimmune hemolytic anemia

Abstract

Background: In this study, an examination of the variability of findings due to seasonal alterations and variability of the number of attacks in warm-type autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) was aimed. Method: Patients over 18 years of age who were admitted to Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital between 2009 and 2017 and were diagnosed with warm-type AIHA were included in this retrospective study. For statistical evaluation, SPSS 20 for Windows was used. For comparison of categorical data, chi-square and Fisher exact chi-square tests were used. Results: The study population comprised of 52 patients. The age range of the patients was 19-89 years, with a median of 45.5 years. Among the patients, the number of attacks was 1 in 63.5% (n=33), 2 in 15.4% (n=8), and 3 in 21.2% (n=11). The type of AIHA was the warm type in all of the patients. In regard to the season during which attacks were experienced, it was determined to be winter in 26.9% (n=14), autumn in 17.3% (n=9), summer in 38.5% (n=20), and spring in 17.3% (n=9) of the patients. The rate of attacks was determined to be higher during winter in the patient group with a number of attacks of 2 or more and during summer and autumn in the patient group with the number of attacks of 1 (p=0.030). Conclusion: It was determined that, while the rate of patients who experienced only 1 AIHA attack increased during the summer and autumn seasons, attacks occurred most commonly during winter in patients with more than 1 attack.