Pancytopenia—a diagnostic challenge?

Pancytopenia is a condition in which there is a lower-than-normal number of red and white blood cells and platelets in the blood. The spectrum of causes for the decrease of one or more blood cell lineages is broad including increased destruction, pooling by spleen, loss of blood cells, decreased production due to toxic and/or immune-mediated mechanisms and abnormalities due to clonal/malignant hematopoiesis. In this article common and/or typical causes of pancytopenia are presented with special emphasis on more or less disease specific features that may be useful clues in the differential diagnosis of this blood picture abnormality.