Severe anemia A 37 year-old male with therapy resistant multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD) anemia was treated by subcutaneous injection of erythropoietin. Although immunoglobulin and CRP concentration increased, anemia obviously improved with hemoglobin levels increasing from 4.8 g/d<i>l</i> to 8.5 g/d<i>l</i> without any side effects. Colony assay revealed that the bone marrow mononuclear cells responded to erythropoietin in a dose dependent manner. The mechanism of anemia of MCD is not clearly understood, and treatment is sometimes very difficult. There is no other previous report concerning erythropoietin as a treatment for anemia in MCD.
Bilateral ankle skin ulcers developed in a 61-year-old man in the chronic phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia receiving hydroxyurea therapy. The circulating immune complex (anti-C<sub>3d</sub> antibody) was high in this case, but vasculitis was not observed in the pathological findings of biopsied skin materials. This association has been reported in patients who had chronic myelogenous leukemia or other myeloproliferative disorders and were treated with hydroxyurea. It is likely that skin ulcers are caused by hydroxyurea.