[Pancytopenia in diabetes mellitus treatment with tolbutamide?]

Pancytopenia developed in a 72-year-old woman after three years of tolbutamide treatment. When tolbutamide was discontinued and the usual treatment of pancytopenia undertaken, the anaemia persisted while the leukopenia and thrombocytopenia were reversed. Pancytopenia during tolbutamide treatment is extremely rare. But the blood picture and platelet count should be regularly checked in all patients receiving sulphonylurea drugs, ten days after starting treatment, every three months for the first year and then once yearly.