Blood and Bone Marrow Studies in Renal Disease

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Abstract
The peripheral blood and bone marrow were studied in 102 patients with nephritis, related diseases and hypertension. In 44 patients with renal disease of sufficient severity to produce azotemia, the degree of anemia was definitely related to the level of retention of nitrogenous products in the blood. Autopsy of 21 of these 44 patients revealed a lack of correlation between anatomic findings and the anemia. The anemia was normocytic in type in 81% of patients with renal disease and azotemia. The bone mar-row was hypercellular in 80% of patients with renal disease and azotemia. Hyper cellularity mainly involved the myeloid and megakaryocytic cells. Erythropoiesis was normal. Definite evidence of quantitative and qualitative hypoplasia of the ery-throid tissue in renal disease was observed only when the non-protein N was over 150 mg. per 100 ml. of blood. Aplasia of the normoblastic tissue was never observed in these marrows. The suppression of the normoblastic elements in chronic glo-merulonephritis is a selective one, as there is no interference with leukopoiesis and megakaryopoiesis. The finding of a cellu-lar bone marrow in chronic glomerulonephritis is not in it-self evidence of hemopoietic activity nor does it have prognostic significance.