[Anemia and neutropenia due to copper deficiency during long-term total parenteral nutrition]

A 33 year-old man with undiagnosed neuropathy showing mental retardation and involuntary movements has been nourished for a long period by total parenteral nutrition (TPN) because of frequent vomiting and repeated aspiration pneumonitis. After ten months' TPN, macrocytic anemia and neutropenia developed and iron preparation was administered without hematological improvement. Bone marrow examination revealed normocellular marrow without features of megaloblastosis and dysplasia. In some erythroblasts and immature myeloid cells, vacuoles were observed and mature granulocytes were reduced in the bone marrow. Both serum copper and ceruloplasmin were very low (12 micrograms/dl and 7mg/dl, respectively). Thus, oral administration of copper sulfate resulted in marked increase of reticulocytes and subsequent improvement of anemia and neutropenia within two months. Copper deficiency is a rare condition, but during an unusual nutrition such as TNP, hematological abnormality due to copper deficiency must be noticed to occur.