[Blood picture findings in children with Parvovirus B19 infections (fifth disease/erythema infectiosum)].

The human parvovirus B19 provokes erythema infectiosum ("e.i."); moreover there is a wide range of diseases due to parvovirus B19 without exanthema/rash. The erythropoietic blast cells of the bone marrow seems to be the main target cells for this virus. Therefore in cases of prenatal infection the consequences are extremely similar to fetal erythroblastosis ("non-immunological" fetal hydrops). In postnatal life the parvovirus B19 infection causes hyporegenerative phases of the erythropoiesis with anaemia after 3-4 weeks. We studied the white blood cell count (WBC), erythrocytes and thrombocytes in children suffering from (serologically well documented) parvovirus B19 infection with exanthem/"e.i." (group 1; n = 23), without exanthem (group 2; n = 46) and with unknown febrile exanthematous rashes (group 3; n = 76). We did not find any characteristic data in the WBC for a diagnosis of parvovirus B19 infection. However we have for the first time documented a significant thrombocytopenia in "e.i." (group 1) not found in group 2. The thrombocytopenia appears earlier than the anaemia, because the lifespan of thrombocytes is considerably shorter than that of erythrocytes. These data suggest that parvovirus B19 attacks not only "erythropoietic" blast cells but also immature bone marrow cells, which are later responsible for the thrombocytopoiesis.