Is there pernicious anemia in the tropics

ABSTRACT

Two cases of pernicious anemia are described, both occuring in elderly Filipinos. Symptomatology , differential diagnosis, and blood and bone marrow findings are discussed. As both cases show macrocytosis, hyperchromia, megalocytosis and megaloblastosis marked anisocytosis, leucopenia, granulocytopenia, "shift to the right" of the neutrophiles and hypersegmentation of the segmented cells; as there is absence of free hydrochloric acid in both cases; as the therapeutic test in both is positive; and finally as the anemia is "idiopathic" in the sense that any secondary anemia can be ruled out, the cases fulfill all requirements for the diagnosis of pernicious anemia. (Summary and Conclusion)