Hemoglobinopathies and COVID-19: The Experience of a Center in Northern Greece.

Healthcare systems around the globe are still facing the evolving threat of the coronavavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. Hemoglobinopathies include a group of genetic disorders, with the two main entities being thalassemias and sickle cell disease. Due to their immunocompromised status, such patients have been protected as extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. We studied patients with different hemoglobinopathies, consecutively monitored at our center, who were infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) during the second and third waves of the pandemic in Greece (September 2020-April 2021), and associated the outcomes of the infection with the following factors: age, employment, blood type, liver and heart hemosiderosis, splenectomy, concomitant endocrine disorders and transfusion dependency. Among 250 patients monitored at our center, 14 were infected with COVID-19. Nine of them were hospitalized but no one required intensive care unit support and all of them responded to the generally applied treatment plan, despite their comorbidities. Notwithstanding the slightly increased prevalence of COVID-19 in patients with hemoglobinopathies compared to the general population, self-applied measures are still thought to be effective, as our patients got infected through their already sick family members.

Total remission of severe immune thrombocytopenia after short term treatment with romiplostim.

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) in adults is an acquired chronic immune-mediated disorder defined by isolated thrombocytopenia. In recent years, an improved understanding of the pathophysiology of ITP has been achieved and it is now accepted that the disorder is due to increased platelet destruction and decreased platelet production from megakary-ocytes. Thrombopoietin (TPO)-receptor agonists (romiplostim and eltrombopag) are new therapeutic modalities in the treatment of ITP. Here we describe a case of an elderly patient with severe ITP who presented complete remission after short-term use of romiplostim (only 3 weekly doses). This finding is quite interesting as the TPO-receptor agonists are, so far, believed to rarely lead to off-treatment sustained remission. The common notion of long-term use of romiplostim could be reexamined in future studies. Furthermore, the short term treatment with romiplostim may reduce the cost and the risk of side effects.

Haematoma caused by bone marrow aspiration and trephine biopsy.

We report a case of a bone marrow aspiration and trephine biopsy (BMATB) associated haematoma in an 85-years old male without any predisposing risk factors. Six days after BMATB, he suffered from a massive thigh and buttock haematoma and a fall in haematocrit. It is important to know that BMATB can have complications aiding early recognition and therapy.