[Prevention and treatment of erectile disorders in sickle cell disease].

Priapism is a frequent and serious cause of morbidity in males with sickle cell disease. Acute priapism (AP) is preceeded in two-thirds of the cases by repeated minor events called stuttering priapism (SP). Since 1994, we have used a specific approach to prevent the commonly devastating effects of AP, using the alpha adrenergic agent etilefrine.

Prospective monitoring and quantitation of residual blasts in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia by polymerase chain reaction study of delta and gamma T-cell receptor genes.

We have developed a strategy based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detecting all possible gamma T-cell receptor (gamma TCR) rearrangements and the most common delta TCR rearrangements found in B-lineage and T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). The segments amplified from blasts are then directly sequenced to derive clonospecific probes. From a series of 45 patients aged 1 to 15 years (42 B-lineage ALL, 3 T-ALL), 35 (83%) could be followed for minimal residual disease with at least one clonospecific probe.