Neonatal Cytopenia - What To Think Of, How To Act?

Cytopenia is a relatively common laboratory finding in the neonatal period. Although it is often a benign and transient condition, it may as well be associated with numerous severe, life threatening deseases, and therefore presents a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Clinical appearance of the child, time of onset of cytopenia, accompanying comorbidities, and basic laboratory findings are usually sufficient for diagnosis, but the condition sometimes requires additional diagnostic evaluation and prompt therapy. We herein presented 3 different cases of neonatal cytopenia (isolated neonatal neutropenia, anemia and thrombocytopenia), along with a short discussion of each with differential diagnosis and diagnostic pathway.