What is your threshold for pursuing bone marrow biopsy in a lupus patient with cytopenias?

I rarely do bone marrow biopsies in patients with SLE as cytopenias are caused primarily by the disease itself and/or medications, primarily Azathioprine and Cyclophosphamide. SLE patients routinely have profound lymphopenia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia.

I consider bone marrow biopsy in patien...

Cytopenia is commonly encountered in patients with SLE. There are three major reasons for cytopenia in SLE:

• Immune mediated due to immune dysregulation in SLE
• Secondary to drugs such as MTX, AZA, MMF
• Hematological malignancy or bone marrow metastasis of solid tumors

Currently, there is no consensus ...