[Hematologic complications in acute alcoholism].

The authors investigated the relations between cell anomalies (vacuolation, increasing sideroblastosis) caused by the uptake of alcohol and the dynamics of haematopoesis in the bone-marrow of 33 alcoholists who had been admitted in a comatose condition and who were neither affected with anaemia nor with chronic hepatitis. In all cases a maturation arrest of erythropoetic and granulopoetic cell elements which was not in accordance with the number of immature vacuolated cells could be observed. 12 test persons showed increased sideroblastic indices and a slightly diminished medullary reticulocytosis. The majority showed a very active thrombocytopoesis contrasting with the normal or even diminished number of thrombocytes in the peripheral blood. The authors come to the conclusion that alcohol will cause a general metabolic damage of haematopoesis and at the same time it will produce a direct toxic effect on the bone-marrow cells (proerythroblasts, promyelocytes) and the peripheral blood (thrombocytes).