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0:00
Hello. My name is Shinji Nakao.
I'm now working at the Japanese
Red Cross Ishikawa Blood Center
as the Director General.
I'm going to talk about the
epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment
and health economics
of aplastic anemia.
0:19
Aplastic anemia, AA,
is a syndrome characterized
by pancytopenia
and bone marrow hypoplasia
caused by a persistent decrease
in the number of hematopoietic
stem cells, HSCs.
There are two forms.
One is congenital, and
the other is acquired.
The decrease of HSCs
is mostly induced by
an immune attack against
HSCs in acquired AA.
In patients with congenital AA,
germline mutations cause
functional abnormalities in HSCs,
leading to the failure to
produce mature blood cells.
1:04
The estimated annual
incidence of AA
is 1.5 - 2.3 per million
in Western countries,
while in Asian countries the
incidence is 3.0 - 7.5 per million,
two to three times higher
than in Western countries.
There are two age peaks.
One is around 20 years of age,
and the other is
around 70 years.
1:32
The first patient was described
by Paul Ehrlich in 1888.
Louis Henri Vaquez named the disease
"anemia aplastique" in 1904.
AA is not really only an anemia,
but instead is a pancytopenia
in which leukopenia,
anemia and thrombocytopenia
are almost always found,
and is defined as a syndrome
caused by a persistent decrease
in the number of HSCs without
any extrinsic factors,
such as chemotherapies
and chemicals.
The top photo of this slide
shows blood collection tubes
