[Ineffective erythropoiesis of immunologic origin with free bilirubin jaundice in an elderly subject].

We report on a 74-year-old male patient who presented with jaundice, highly increased unconjugated bilirubin and slight nonregenerative anemia. Ferrokinetic studies demonstrated ineffective erythropoiesis and red cell survival, studied by 51 Cr, showed moderately increased hemolysis. Other findings showed no evidence of an underlying myelodysplastic syndrome but strongly favored the autoimmune origin of the disorder, with immunologic destruction of erythroblasts (and to a far lesser extent erythrocytes) by autoantibodies.