Infections of hairy cell leukemia. Clinical evidence of a pronounced defect in cell-mediated immunity.

We compared infection rates in 12 patients with hairy cell leukemia (a malignant neoplasm for which the cell of origin remains controversial) with rates in 15 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (a known B-lymphocyte neoplasm) recently treated at four Dallas hospitals. We found a significantly higher over-all rate of infections in the patients with hairy cell leukemia (P = 0.004 BY Gehan's variation on the generalized Wilcoxon test).

Granulomatous synovitis: the role of atypical mycobacteria.

Clinical data on 25 patients with granulomatous synovitis and bursitis observed from 1970 through 1977 are reviewed. The lesions occurred about the extremities, the wrists and hands being involved most often. With three exceptions, the patients had no significant underlying disease.

Enterococcal endocarditis: duration and mode of treatment.

This report summarizes data on sixteen patients with enterococcal endocarditis treated with penicillin and streptomycin. The experience reported suggests that a four week period is adequate for routine therapy in these patients, as in other forms of streptococcal endocarditis. It provides an additional group of patients successfully treated with penicillin and streptomycin.

Histoplasmosis: twenty years experience in a general hospital.

This report summarizes the clinical and laboratory data on 57 patients with histoplasmosis, including 13 with progressive disseminated disease. The experience in general is supportive of that of others in that although infection with Histoplasma capsulatum is prevalent, clinical disease is uncommon and disseminated disease actually rare. The data again emphasize the limitations of diagnostic methods, and in particular point up the need to obtain cultures of biopsy material from mucocutaneous lesions.

In Vivo Studies on Staphylococcal Penicillinase.

Eyckmans, Luc (Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Tex.), and Ralph Tompsett. In vivo studies on staphylococcal penicillinase.

The fate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in mouse tissues as determined by the microbial enumeration technique. II. The conversion of tuberculous infection to the latent state by the administration of pyrazinamide and a companion drug.

Populations of tubercle bacilli of human origin exposed in vivo to pyrazinamide and a companion drug, vanished from the tissues of the mouse in so far as could be determined by microscopy, culture, or guinea pig subinoculation. The vanishing did not represent a complete elimination of the tubercle bacilli from all the animals. 90 days after the completion of treatment, tubercle bacilli could be cultured from approximately one-third of the animals examined at that time.

Fate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in mouse tissues as determined by the microbial enumeration technique. I. The persistence of drug-susceptible tubercle bacilli in the tissues despite prolonged antimicrobial therapy.

Observations are presented on the behavior of populations of tubercle bacilli in the tissues of mice during the administration of antimicrobial drugs. The behavior of the populations during therapy with any particular drug was different depending upon whether the tubercle bacilli were subsisting in the lung or in the spleen. Moreover, the pattern of microbial behavior was distinctive and predictable for each drug studied.