Plasma histamine and serum pepsinogen I concentrations in chronic myelogenous leukaemia.

A male patient with multiple gastroduodenal ulcers and gastric hypersecretion due to hyperhistaminaemia associated with extreme basophilia occurring in chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) is described. In addition, plasma histamine levels and serum pepsinogen I concentrations, reflecting gastric acid secretion, were studied in 18 CML patients. As compared to controls, plasma histamine levels were clearly increased in CML patients and correlated well with the basophil count.

Acquired pure red-cell aplasia: a consequence of increased natural killer cell activity?

A 19-year-old man with severe pure red-cell aplasia is described. An unusually high proportion of this patient's lymphocytes were large granular lymphocytes (LGL), both in the blood (40%) and in the bone marrow (50%). His blood leukocytes displayed a strongly elevated natural killer (NK) cell activity in vitro against the erythroblastic leukemia line K562.

Erythroid blast crisis in chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Blood or bone marrow specimens from 22 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia in blast crisis were studied for the surface expression of glycophorin-A, a marker for early erythroid differentiation. The leukemic blasts were stained with rabbit anti-glycophorin-A antiserum. The glycophorin-A molecules detected by the rabbit antiserum were identified by polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis of the immunoprecipitates from the membrane lysates of surface-labeled blasts.

Chromosome 1q+ in erythroid and granulocyte-monocyte precursors in a patient with essential thrombocythemia.

A 55-year-old man with essential thrombocythemia had multiplication of bands q21 to q32 of chromosome 1 in all studied mitoses from bone marrow, from unstimulated blood, and from erythroid and granulocyte-monocyte colonies grown in vitro. The multiplication was in the form of triplication in 16 out of 20 mitoses from the marrow and in 4 of 6 mitoses from the blood; the rest showed a duplication of this region. All 20 mitoses from erythroid and granulocyte-monocyte colonies showed the abnormality in the form of duplication.

Haematopoietic progenitors in essential thrombocythaemia.

Colony formation by haematopoietic progenitors from the bone marrow and blood of 4 patients with essential thrombocythaemia was studied in vitro using the methyl cellulose assay. 3 patients had clearly elevated numbers of BFU-E in bone marrow. 1 patient also had markedly increased numbers of CFU-E and CFU-GM, whereas the other patients had only marginally increased or normal numbers of these progenitors in the marrow.

Value of liver and spleen aspiration biopsy in malignant diseases when these organs show no signs of involvement in sonography.

To determine whether an aspiration biopsy of liver and/or spleen is likely to reveal a clinically silent malignant infiltration, fine-needle aspiration biopsies were carried out in 180 patients with a diagnosed malignancy in whom neither the liver nor the spleen gave signs of involvement in sonography. Few, if any, findings were positive in patients with cancer or Hodgkin's disease. In non-Hodgkin lymphoma, about 25% of the biopsies were positive for malignancy or aroused suspicion of malignancy.

Glucocorticoid receptors in hairy-cell leukemia.

Glucocorticoid receptors were measured from leukemic cells of five patients with hairy-cell leukemia as well as a cell line (JOK-1) derived from one of the patients studied and grown in continuous culture in vitro. Receptor analyses were accomplished using a whole-cell binding assay with [3H]dexamethasone as the ligand. Glucocorticoid receptor sites in the leukemic hairy cells ranged from 5,710 to 11,400 sites/cell, and the mean dissociation constant (KD) between the receptor sites and [3H]dexamethasone was 0.

Circulating haematopoietic progenitors in myelofibrosis.

We studied circulating erythroid and granulocyte-monocyte progenitors in 18 patients with idiopathic myelofibrosis and in healthy controls, using the methyl cellulose assay. 9 of the patients had been splenectomized prior to the study. The median number of circulating erythroid burst-forming units (BFU-E) was 8 times higher than that of the controls.

Acute erythroleukaemia with L3 morphology and the 14q+ chromosome.

L3 morphology according to the FAB classification and the 14q+ chromosome are usually ascribed to the Burkitt type of leukaemia or lymphoma with a B or pre-B cell phenotype. We report here a case of adult acute leukaemia with Burkitt morphology and the 14q+, which did not express lymphoid markers. Instead, the leukaemia was shown to be an acute erythroleukaemia.

Splenectomy for myelofibrosis.

In 30 consecutive splenectomies for myelofibrosis (MF) with cytopenia(s) and/or massive splenomegaly the operative mortality was 6.7% (2 patients). Postoperative complications were observed in 11 (37%) patients.

Haema synthesis during pyridoxine therapy in two families with different types of hereditary sideroblastic anaemia.

The activity of delta-aminolaevulinic acid synthase (ALA-S) as well as the concentrations of coproporphyrin and protoporphyrin in peripheral red blood cells were examined in 2 sisters and in 2 brothers with hereditary sideroblastic anaemias (HSA) of different types. The measurements were done before and during treatment by pyridoxal-5-phosphate (PLP) and/or pyridoxine chloride. Previous family studies indicated an X chromosome linked HSA in the 2 brothers, whereas the precise mode of inheritance in the 2 sisters has not been established.

Abnormalities of chromosome No. 17 in myeloproliferative disorders.

In routine analyses, abnormalities of chromosome No. 17 were found in the bone marrow cells of 28 patients with Ph1-positive and three patients with Ph1-negative chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), 4 patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL), and 4 patients with preleukemia. With three exceptions, all patients were in the blastic (CML) or the terminal phase.

The Finnish leukaemia group: levamisole in maintenance therapy of acute myeloid leukemia in adults.

The Finnish Leukaemia Group has carried out a randomized, multicenter trial to study the effect of levamisole on the remission maintained with 6-mercaptopurine and methotrexate in acute myeloid leukaemia in adults. Levamisole was given on 3 consecutive days every 2 weeks. Twenty-five patients received only chemotherapy, while 26 patients received levamisole as well.

Defective neutrophil migration in monosomy-7.

The migration in vitro of neutrophils from six patients with monosomy-7 or partial deletion of the long arm of chromosome 7 was studied by two methods: the Millipore filter assay and the migration under agarose assay. Four of the patients had preleukemia, one had subacute myelomonocytic leukemia, and one polycythemia vera. In four patients, chemotaxis (migration towards a higher concentration of chemoattractant) and chemokinesis (stimulated migration without a gradient) were shown to be defective by both methods.

The 5q- chromosome in preleukaemia and acute leukaemia.

13 patients with the 5q- chromosome are described. In 6 patients the 5q- chromosome was the sole aberration. 10 patients had preleukaemia, 1 a preleukaemia-like syndrome after treatment of polycythaemia vera, a 2 acute myeloid leukaemia.

Chromosome changes in human chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Karyotypes were studied in B- and T-lymphocyte cultures from 66 patients with B-cell CLL and two patients wtih T-cell CLL. Thirty-one of the B-cell cases had not been treated for their disease; 35 had received radiotherapy, corticosteroids, or cytostatic drugs. Only one of the untreated patients had a clone with an abnormal karyotype.

Haem biosynthesis in refractory sideroblastic anaemia associated with the preleukaemic syndrome.

The activities of 5 enzymes of the haem biosynthetic pathway and the protoporphyrin concentrations have been measured in peripheral red blood cells of 23 patients having a preleukaemic syndrome with refractory sideroblastic anaemia. A decreased delta-aminolaevulinic acid synthase (ALA-S) activity, an increased uroporphyrinogen I synthase activity and an increased red cell protoporphyrin concentration were consistent findings. Patients with abnormal leucocyte and/or platelet counts in the peripheral blood as well as patients with an excess of blast cells in the bone marrow had the lowest ALA-S activities.

Significance of monospecific antisera in the diagnosis and prognosis of autoimmune haemolytic anaemias.

The significance of the monospecific antiglobulin test in the diagnosis and prognosis of autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA) was tested in 74 patients with AIHA and 59 patients with secondary AIHA. There were 48 female and 26 male patients. Idiopathic AIHA patients more often had two or more positive monospecific reactions in the direct antiglobulin test than secondary AIHA patients.

Red cell flexibility and oxygen affinity in patients with angina pectoris and normal coronary arteries.

Plasma viscosity, haemoglobin-oxygen affinity and red cell flexibility were determined in 16 patients who had angina pectoris but no objective evidence for spasms or obstructions in the coronary arteries. Reference data were obtained from healthy controls and from a group of patients with angina pectoris and multivessel coronary artery disease. In the non-coronary angina group mean plasma viscosity (+/- SD) was in the normal range (1.

Chromosome studies in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).

Chromosome banding studies of the bone marrow were performed in 35 adult (greater than 14 years) patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Surface marker analysis was done in 24 of these and revealed 4 B-ALL, 5 T-ALL and 15 non-T non-B ALL. Most patients were studied at diagnosis before any treatment.

Platelet function in preleukaemia.

Platelet function was studied in 17 patients with preleukaemia and the results were compared with those of 28 patients with other chronic myeloproliferative disorders. The test pattern included bleeding time (Ivy), platelet retention (Hellem II), PF-3 activity and availability after exposure to ADP and kaolin, and ADP-, epinephrine-, collagen- and ristocetin-induced aggregations. Platelet function was frequently impaired in patients with preleukemia.