Hematology
Clinical discussions on blood disorders, coagulation, transfusion medicine, and hematologic malignancies.
Recent Discussions
Is there a role for DOAC use for patients with unprovoked PE, that have had recent sleeve gastrectomy with duodenal bypass?
Alterations in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract following bariatric surgery, as well as altered or reduced oral intake, have the potential to impair the absorption of both DOACs and VKAs in the acute setting. DOACs are absorbed in the upper GI tract, which is altered by the most common bariatric surg...
What is your approach to optimizing pre-operative hemoglobin in patients with sickle cell disease?
Unfortunately, I am not aware of a more comprehensive document than the ASH guidelines. These are what I use to define my default management strategy, often in coordination with our dedicated hematology consult subspecialist service.
How would you evaluate a patient with an isolated high RBC count but with a normal hemoglobin and hematocrit?
My first question would be, how long has the elevated red cell count been present? I ask this because, in a study of 10,000 individuals, erythrocytosis was initially found in 88 but after a year only 11 still had this finding (Ruggeri et al., PMID 13679323). If therefore, the observation is recent, ...
Would you offer live vaccines (e.g., MMRV/measles) to patients on bispecific antibodies for multiple myeloma?
I agree with the answer here by Dr. @Dr. First Last. There are a lot of nuances, though. In regard to giving the vaccine safely and effectively, the best strategy is not to wait until patients have multiple relapses and are on bispecific therapy to vaccinate. Given the recent outbreaks of measles, i...
Would you extend the duration of anticoagulation in patients with a provoked DVT, but evidence of residual clot at 3 months?
This is a really interesting discussion. I do tend to get Dopplers at the end of the anticoagulation treatment period, but only to assess the new baseline and to help decision-making in the future if they develop new symptoms and have another Doppler. I find this to be very helpful to understand if ...
In patients with post-PV myelofibrosis who are ineligible for allogeneic stem cell transplant, how do you approach symptomatic splenomegaly refractory to splenic radiation and ruxolitinib?
This is always a tough situation. First, I would make sure the patient is truly not a candidate for transplant. With reduced intensity conditioning and the addition of ruxolitinib before and after transplant, transplant is better tolerated than it once was. Otherwise, would consider switching to ano...
How would you approach management and monitoring of AL amyloidosis with isolated renal involvement?
This is tough for sure, and my first question would be to ask how the renal biopsy was determined to be AL amyloidosis. Sometimes typing isn't required if the pattern is overwhelmingly lambda-restricted or kappa-restricted by immunofluorescence... but in this case, mass spectrometry typing may be wo...
How would you treat an elderly newly diagnosed tDLBCL that has previously seen R-CHOP and Bendamustine-Obinutuzumab prior to the transformative event?
I would give tafasatimab and Revlimid per the L-MIND study. I have been so impressed by this well tolerated immunotherapy regimen and the durability of responses. Literally, it looks competitive with car T cell therapy. Car, T cells would be an option, if the patient is very fit for their age and th...
When starting a patient on a tyrosine kinase inhibitor for chronic phase CML, which drug do you choose upfront?
I start with nilotinib. I think it is well tolerated and that molecular responses are deeper and the chance of cure is greater.
What factors do you consider when choosing between a 1st and 2nd generation TKI in a newly diagnosed CML patient?
I consider disease risk, patient comorbidities, and current medications taken. First, if a patient has low risk disease, any of the approved TKIs in first line are acceptable. If the patient has higher risk disease, I generally do not start imatinib. In terms of picking amongst the TKIs, I prefer to...