Introduction:

The term hemolysis refers to the destruction of erythrocytes, a process occurring in a wide range of physiological and pathological clinical conditions. The term is used to define situations in which mean erythrocyte lifespan is reduced due to mechanical, toxic, autoimmune or infectious causes.

Objective:

Describe the main markers of hemolysis found to be variably altered in the different forms of hemolytic anemias.

Methods:

A review was conducted of the literature about the topic published in English and Spanish in the website PubMed and the search engine Google Scholar in the last 10 years. Data were analyzed and summarized.

Data analysis and synthesis:

Hemoglobin is the most direct marker of clinical severity in hemolytic diseases. Its values may be very close to reference levels in mild disease (Hb > 100 g/l), whereas they will be significantly reduced in moderate (Hb 80-100 g/l), severe (Hb 60-80 g/l) and very severe disease (Hb < 60 g/l). However, other markers are also essential to distinguish acute from chronic presentation, extravascular from intravascular hemolysis, and the presence of extrahematological signs such as reticulocytes and schistocytes, lactate dehydrogenase, haptoglobin, bilirubin, ferritin and hemosiderinuria.

Conclusions:

Differentially altered hemolytic parameters may be found in several conditions, which makes them useful for the differential diagnosis of hemolytic anemias.

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