The Hematology and Eye Disease

Abstract

Blood diseases are diseases that arise spontaneously in the hematopoietic system or affect the hematopoietic system and are accompanied by abnormal blood changes. They include erythrocyte diseases, granulocyte diseases, lymphatic diseases, plasma cell diseases, myeloproliferative diseases, bleeding, thrombotic diseases, etc. Blood diseases can involve various systems and organs of the body. Their early manifestations are often not typical. Most patients with hematological disease first visit in other departments, which leads to misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis. It is reported that about 90% of blood diseases will involve the eyes, but in clinical practice ophthalmologists pay little attention to ischemic eye diseases caused by vascular diseases. If we re-examine the relationship between blood diseases and eye diseases from the perspective of integrated medicine, we can find that eye diseases have the characteristics reflecting the abnormal changes of the blood components: (1) changes in blood components can cause changes in the tone of blood vessels, and thus may cause tissue color or tone abnormalities, such as pale conjunctiva caused by anemia, yellow scleral caused by hemolytic jaundice, and cobalt blue sclera caused by iron-deficiency anemia; (2) ischemia is often accompanied by changes in bleeding, which is mainly due to the destruction of coagulation balance. The pathologic essence of tumor determines that it has the following characteristics: (a) atypical; (b) able to growth; (c) able to diffuse; and (d) able to infiltrate and metastasize (as with malignant tumor). The latter three represent the main causes of tumor damage to tissues and organs. Therefore, eye tumors that have their origins in the hematopoietic system usually have the features of the two. Following the concept of integrated medicine, we should, in clinical practice, have the holistic treatment concept of “holistic analysis and systemic balance” and work with blood department in close cooperation in diagnosis and treatment. We should be concerned about not only the visual impairment caused by blood disease itself, but also the side effects of treatment.