Orofacial fungal infections. Nine pathogens that may invade during chemotherapy.

Immunosuppression due to antineoplastic drugs or malignant tumor leaves patients extremely vulnerable to infection. Opportunistic fungi that rarely infect healthy persons can have very severe consequences in these patients. Candida albicans is the pathogen found most often, but several other Candida species may cause infection as well.

Effect of antileukemia chemotherapy on marrow, blood, and oral granulocyte counts.

This study was designed to elicit the effects of antileukemia chemotherapy on marrow production, blood carriage, and oral extravasation of granulocytes, and on the phagocytic activity of those harvested from the mouth. Fifteen adult patients with various morphologic forms of acute leukemia were followed through one to four courses of chemotherapy. Oral saline rinse samples were obtained thrice weekly and prepared for enumeration in a hemocytometer.

The many faces of adult leukemia.

This article describes the facial complications of adult leukemia, as derived from a study of more than 3,000 patients treated at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Hospital during the past 25 years.

The butterfly rash and the malar flush. What diseases do these signs reflect?

The butterfly rash and malar flush are common facial manifestations of several disorders. Systemic lupus erythematosus may produce a transient rash before any other signs. In pellagra, symmetric keratotic areas on the face are always accompanied by lesions elsewhere on the body.

Acral erythemas induced by chemotherapy and graft-versus-host disease in adults with hematogenous malignancies.

Acral erythema is being seen with increasing frequency in patients with hematologic malignancies, because of the administration of more aggressive high-dosage chemotherapy and the increasing use of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, which may be followed by the development of cutaneous graft-versus-host disease. The varieties induced by both drugs and graft-versus-host disease are grossly similar but can be differentiated on the basis of symptoms, medical history, and response to therapy. Each also has to be differentiated from the painless palmar erythema commonly associated with pregnancy and with chronic liver disease.