The Consultative Laboratory Assessment System, the CLAS Profile.

The design and implementation of a profile titled Consultative Laboratory Assessment System, or CLAS Profile, is described. The profile is a pathologist-directed laboratory study to assist the ordering physician with recently hospitalized patients. The goals are to provide summarized information, decrease the evaluation intervals, and assist in diagnosis and coding.

Peripheral blood remission of hairy cell leukemia after transfusion hepatitis.

Hairy cell leukemia is a chronic lymphoproliferative disorder characterized clinically by splenomegaly and cytopenias. Spontaneous remissions are rare and splenectomy is often performed when the blood counts worsen and cause symptoms. Three of our patients with hairy cell leukemia developed recurrent pancytopenia and transfusion-dependent anemia after splenectomy.

Institutional performance in application of the FAB classification of acute leukemia. The Southwest Oncology Group experience.

Institutional performance in application of the French-American-British (FAB) classification of acute leukemia in The Southwest Oncology Group is presented, demonstrating a disparity between institutional and expert performance. A significant improvement is shown with an educational effort coupled with experience in use of the classification, and the importance of cytochemistry in the use of the classification is illustrated. A simplification of the classification, merging M1, M2, and M4 as M7, is proposed.

Contrast-induced seizure associated with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Case report.

A patient with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura had a seizure as the result of a contrast media injection given during computed tomographic examination. To our knowledge, ours is the first such case reported.

Reproducibility of the French-American-British classification of acute leukemia: the Southwest Oncology Group Experience.

After initial French-American-British (FAB) diagnosis by a multiinstitutional Southwest Oncology Group panel, slides of acute leukemia cases were recirculated to panel members for second review. The reproducibility of the FAB classification is analyzed. The classification is reproducible in the 70% range in panel reviewer hands and allows remarkable reproducibility in the morphologic and cytochemical distinction of acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) from acute myeloid leukemia (AML).