The evaluation of spleen function in man

ABSTRACT

The usual methods for the functional evaluation of the spleen in man are based on the measurement of a) spleen volume, b) spleen uptake of particles form the circulating blood, and c) morphlogical abnormalities of ciruclating erythrocytes. Analysis of clearance curves of damaged autologous erythrocytes, measurement of spleen size or volume by scintillation scantillation scanning and counting of erythrocytes with pits by interference contrast microscopy at present are the most widely used techniques. The most frequent causes of acquired fucntional abnormalities of the spleen are the sickle cell diseases, inflammatory intestinal diseases, immune complex diseases, chronic myelogenous leukemia, irradiation, hemophilia, and the hyposplenism of newborn infants and of the elderly. Usually there is a parallelism between spleen volume and functional capacity; however; "functional" hyposplenism or asplenia, i. e., an enlarged or normal-sized spleen with decreased function, has been observed in sickle cell syndromes and occasionally in chronic myelogenous leukemia and hemophilia