Does clonal hematopoiesis explain unexplained anemia?

Abstract

In this issue of Blood, van Zeventer and her colleagues in The Netherlands report mutational profiling in 676 anemic patients 60 years old and a group of age-matched nonanemic controls.1 These study subjects were selected from the LifeLines population cohort, which includes 22 108 people in that age band, most in the northern provinces of The Netherlands. The prevalence of anemia in the LifeLines cohort, just >3%, is considerably lower than in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III cohort, which may relate to better population health in The Netherlands compared with the United States or germline genetic differences.