Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency: the added value of cytology

We report the case of a 2 year-old boy hospitalized into the emergency room for influenza pneumonia infection. The evolution was marked by a respiratory distress syndrome, a severe hemolytic anemia, associated with thrombocytopenia and kidney failure. First, a diagnosis of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) has been judiciously suggested due to the classical triad: kidney failure, hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia. But, strikingly, blood smears do not exhibit schizocytes, but instead ghosts and hemighosts, some characteristic features of a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. Our hypothesis has been confirmed by enzymatic dosage and molecular biology. The unusual initial aplastic feature of this anemia could be the result of a transient erythroblastopenia due to the viral agent, at the origin of the G6PD crisis on a background of a major erythrocyte anti-oxydant enzyme defect. This case of G6PD defect points out the continuously importance of the cytology, which was able to redirect the diagnosis by the hemighost and ghost detection.