Primary acquired sideroblastic erythropoiesis in non-anaemic and minimally anaemic subjects.

Six patients had primary sideroblastic erythropoiesis together with a haemoglobin concentration of 12.0 g/dl or higher. In four cases this was associated with macrocytosis. Other abnormalities included failure of erythroid progenitor growth from peripheral blood in three cases and occasional dysplastic appearances in neutrophils and megakaryocytes. Sideroblastic erythropoiesis seems to be an early manifestation of the myelodysplastic syndrome and may present clinically at a pre-anaemic stage.