The blood volume and splenic red cell pool in hairy cell leukemia

Investigating the splenic red cell pool in 7 patients with hairy cell leukemia we have found unusually high values of retained erythrocytes (means 527 ml, SD 264) with a range from 300 to 998 ml. This amount represents on average 26% of the total red cell mass. The blood volume in these patients ws 26% greater than predicted by NADLER et al. Following splenectomy, the hemoglobin improved with 49.3% (SD 29.1).