Hypogammaglobulinemia and pernicious anemia

Abstract

We have described two patients with pernicious anemia in whom incidental hypogammaglobulinemia was discovered. According to our review of 41 cases of this association reported in the literature, our patients are similar to those previously reported in their young age, the evidence for antral involvement with the atrophic gastritis, and the absence in one case of autoantibodies. They differ in their milder degree of hypogammaglobulinemia and in the previously unreported finding of improvement in gamma-globulin levels after vitamin B12 therapy.