[Microangiopathic hemolytic anemia and consumption coagulopathy with metastasizing gastric carcinoma (author's...

Microangiopathic hemolytic anemias (MHA) are frequently at the root of metastasizing gastric carcinoma. If the characteristic fragmented erythrocytes ("schistocytes") are found to be increased in the blood smear, this can be taken as a pointer to gastric neoplasm. Consumption coagulopathy frequently intensifies the clinical symptoms. A report of a 51-year-old woman with gastric carcinoma, MHA and consumption coagulopathy is given in whom the determination of numerous schistocytes in the peripheral blood was of decisive significance for the diagnosis.