RETICULOENDOTHELIAL ACTIVATION NOTED AFTER SPLENECTOMY FOR ITP AND PRESENCE OF A POSTPOLIOMYELITIS ASYMMETRY

A radiocolloid study was carried out, after splenectomy, in a 75-year- old man who had idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. The patient, who did not have an increase in platelet counts after spleen removal or af ter platelet infusions, showed radiocolloid accumulation in the lungs and in the bone marrow. This suggested some ''activation'' of reticulo endothelial cells, perhaps by circulating immune complexes. The left f emur (site of an episode of poliomyelitis many years previously) had l ess radiocolloid uptake than the right.