抄録
For the purpose of clarifying the mechanism of development of anemia in tuberculosis, one of the authors (Nishikaze) reported that in experimental tuberculosis the primary anemia appearing in the early stage and the secondary anemia in the later stage can be distinguished by the accelerated red cell destruction with the increased bone marrow activity in the former and the depression of the hematopoiesis with the lowered function of reticuloendothelial system in the latter.
In this paper the author reports the results obtained by observing the reticulocyte index (RCI) in tuberculous patients. The RCI proposed by Seno et al., is derived from the following foumula:
RCI=Nt'/Nt, Nt'=a(b-c)/1, 000t=1, 618 in the male and 1, 451 in the female in mean value. Where Nt'=the RC number liberated from bone marrow into 1cu. mm. of blood, b=RC numbre in 1, 000red cells, c=old RC in 1, 000red cells obtained from the RC number remainingg after the complete maturation of RC in vitro, t=ripening of young RC by hour, Nt=the mean value of Nt's found in normal organism. This RCI gives a good indication of the grade of bone marrow activity, 1 in the normal individual, greater than 1 in activatad hematopoiesis and less than 1 with lowered activity. All the tuberculous patients tested have given the values less than 1, indicating lowered activity of bone marrow.
