[Diabetic microangiopathic hemolytic anemia--rare complication of a common disease]

It is well-known that long-standing diabetes damages the vasculature. It is less frequently known that the plasticity of red blood cells may also be impaired so that they do not always survive intact in a vasculature roughened by diabetes, but are instead lysed. Lysis of red blood cells results in fragmentation hemolysis, which may lead to anemia if formation of red blood cells is deficient. We describe two patients with this rare complication, both of whom were diagnosed with diabetic microangiopathic hemolytic anemia (DMHA) during pregnancy.