Whooping cough - Slide 2
This very severe infection with Bordetella pertussis shows obvious signs of hemolysis in addition to the characteristic cleaved lymphocytes. Hemolysis in whooping cough is rare and usually described in the context of a thrombotic microangiopathy/atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (TMA/aHUS), presumably due to endothelial activation and complement dysregulation induced by pertussis toxin. However, the hemolysis in this specimen fits less well with a TMA, given the greatly increased platelet count. The exact cause of the hemolysis in this case could not be determined.
Peripheral blood
Neutrophils
