ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION Diseases of the blood and associated tissues are common both in community and hospital practice. They produce a remarkably diverse range of symptoms and signs. This heterogeneity is explained by the large number of different ways in which blood may malfunction and result in disease. Most simply, an individual may have a shortage of normal blood cells. The commonest of all haematological syndromes, anaemia, arises from a lack of normal circulating red cells. Underproduction or excessive destruction of white cells (leucopenia) or platelets (thrombocytopenia) also causes distinctive groups of symptoms and physical fi ndings. Conversely, pathological overproduction of cells occurs in the myeloproliferative disorders.