Cold Agglutinin Disease

Cold agglutinin disease is a rare type of haemolytic anaemia that is brought on by cold temperatures. Autoantibodies called "cold agglutinins" are triggered when body temperature is below normal where they bind to red blood cells and mark them for destruction. A primary feature of the blood film is the visual different between temperature changes. At cooler temperatures, the red cells can be seen clumping together, where at warmer temperatures they do not.