[Autoimmunhemolytic anemia in infancy (author's transl)]

Autoimmunhemolytic anemia in childhood can be divided into two main groups according to the length of the illness: an acute, transient form and a chronic, prolonged one. The etiopathology of the illness is still unknown. It is most postable that there is a connection with virus infections, whereby the antibodies, appearing within the framework of an immunological reaction, are to be considered as a secondary response to the infection. It could not, unfortunately, be proved in the case of our patient that there had been a virus infection. The role of immunodefects in the case of the acute form is currently being discussed in the more recent literature and the point als made that genetic defects are possible in the connection.