SEVERE PANCYTOPENIA IN AN ELDERLY WOMAN AFTER 12 MONTHS ACE-INHIBITOR THERAPY

A sprightly 79-year-old woman was treated for high blood pressure with indapamide (2.5 mg/day) and the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor lisinopril (5 mg/day). About 12 months after starting treatment a blood count carried out because of a syncopal attack revealed pancytopenia (haemoglobin 3.3 g/dl, erythrocytes 1.0 x 10(6)/mul, leucocytes 1100/mul, platelets 8000/mul). Until then the blood count had been unremarkable. The bone marrow showed severe hypoplasia of all three cell lines with reactive plasmocytosis. Malignant cells were not present. The patient received a total of nine units of erythrocytes and seven units of platelets. Her care included reverse barrier nursing and antibiotic treatment. She was also given high dose steroid therapy (methylprednisone up to 150 mg/day) and granulocyte colony stimulating factor (filgrastim 300 mug/day subcutaneously for 25 days), and after a latent period of several weeks juvenile myeloid precursors reappeared in the blood. Before discharge from hospital the results rose to subnormal levels without further transfusions (haemoglobin 8.5/dl, erythrocytes 3.1 x 10(6)/mul, leucocytes 3900/mul, platelets 21.000/mul). In the bone marrow, all three cell lines were beginning to recover. The final diagnosis was incompletely reversible pancytopenia resulting from secondary aplastic anaemia during ACE inhibitor therapy.