[Septicemia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa serotype O 16 in a hemato-oncology department. Review of 17 cases].

Seventeen cases of Pseudomonas aeruginosa serotype O 16 septicaemia in patients with immune deficiencies are reported. All patients had a poor prognosis from the onset because of the advanced stage of their illness, the particular clinical form of their disease or because of the confirmed inefficacy of their anti-leukaemic chemotherapy. The neutrophil leukocyte count was less than 0.

In vitro sensitivity of leukemic clonogenic cells to four anthracyclines (adriamycin, daunorubicin, rubidazone and aclacinomycin) in human acute myeloid leukemia.

We used an in vitro clonogenic assay in semi-solid medium to test the sensitivity of human leukemic progenitors to different anthracyclines. Bone marrow leukemic cells of 19 patients with acute myeloid leukemia were plated after exposure to adriamycin (ADR), daunorubicin (DNR), rubidazone (RDZ) and aclacinomycin (ACLA). We obtained a dose-dependent response curve with all anthracyclines, with wide response curve with all anthracyclines, with wide patient to patient variations.

DNA ligases in human leukemia.

Following partial purification on sucrose gradient and/or phosphocellulose chromatography, DNA ligase was tested in peripheral white blood and bone marrow cells of nearly 100 patients with various kinds of leukemias, mainly acute leukemias. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) was tested in parallel. DNA ligase of acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) was extracted with the same sedimentation coefficient (5.

[Dural venous sinus occlusions in hemopathies].

Four men and four women, aged 16 to 43, developed dural sinus thrombosis, five patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (L.A.L.

[Histopathologic aspects of bone marrow in angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy].

42 bone marrow biopsies (BMB) were done in 34 patients with angio-immunoblastic lymphadenopathy (AIL), 3 of them associated with Gougerot-Sjögren syndrome. Involvement of bone marrow was discovered in 36 BMB (85%) and in 27 patients (79%). The lesions appeared as nodules destroying the hematopoietic tissue.

Cobalamin (vitamin B12) and B12 binding proteins in hypereosinophilic syndromes and secondary eosinophilia.

Serum cobalamin (vitamin B12) and unsaturated B12 binding capacity (UBBC) have been measured in 24 cases of hypereosinophilia: 16 were cases of hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) and 8 of secondary eosinophilia. The two groups were similar with respect to absolute eosinophil counts. Serum cobalamin and UBBC were found to be markedly increased in most cases of HES and normal in secondary eosinophilia.

Prognostic value of cytologic parameters in acute myelogenous leukemia.

The prognostic value of some current cytologic characteristics was assessed in 174 adult patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) treated according to the AML-5 protocol of the EORTC Leukemia and Hematosarcomas Group. A significantly higher rate of complete remission (CR) was observed in patients with low bone-marrow (BM) cellularity, with BM blasts less than 80%, and with Auer rod positive cells more than 2.5% of the total blast cell population.

In vitro culture of clonogenic leukaemic cells in acute myeloid leukaemia: growth pattern and drug sensitivity.

Bone marrow from 43 of 45 AML patients grew leukaemic colonies in culture with a technique using methyl-cellulose semi-solid medium and stimulation with PHA-leucocyte conditioned medium. Plating efficiency was significantly greater in M4FAB subtypes than in M1 or M2. The presence of Auer rods in cultured cells and the existence of cytogenetic abnormalities in both fresh and cultured blast cells in one patient confirmed the leukaemic origin of these colonies.

High-dose cytarabine in acute leukemia: toxicity and pharmacokinetics.

High-dose cytarabine (HDARA-C) at doses ranging from 1000 to 3000 mg/m2 administered as 30-min iv infusions was used in 12 patients with acute leukemia. HDARA-C toxicity was marked by nausea, vomiting, and somnolence; fever occurred in one patient. Myelosuppression was brief and reversible; the wbc count nadir occurred between Days 10 and 15 after treatment.

Iron supplements versus placebo during pregnancy: its effects on iron and folate status on mothers and newborns.

Iron and folate status of 203 pregnant women have been evaluated at 6 months gestation and on the same women and their newborn infants at delivery. The women who had, at 6 months gestation, a Hb level below 11 g/dl were systematically given iron supplements. Iron or placebo were randomly allocated to the other women.

[Biermer's disease without anemia, nor megaloblastosis. Value of the study of antibodies, vitamin assays, and the dU suppression test for the early diagnosis].

In two patients, a diagnosis of pernicious anemia was made without anemia, megaloblastosis and even macrocytosis. The diagnosis of pernicious anemia was suggested by the autoimmune abnormalities which are frequently associated with this disease: goitre with anti-thyroid and anti parietal cell antibodies, and besides this, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura in the first patient, vitiligo in the second. The morphological abnormalities were limited to slight macrocytosis in the first patient and to hypersegmentation of polymorphonuclear leucocyte in both.

[Cutaneous necrosis of the breast: a complication of oral anticoagulant treatment].

Cutaneous necrosis of the breast is a rare complication of oral antivitamin K drugs. It occurs shortly after instituting therapy with well-limited, irreversible skin necrosis developing rapidly. The scar is superficial and only involves the subcutaneous tissue; early and extensive surgery does not therefore seem to be justified.

Chronic myelogenous leukemia with a Philadelphia chromosome resulting from a complex translocation (2; 9; 22), following an undifferentiated acute leukemia.

This case report concerns a patient with acute leukemia considered at diagnosis to be undifferentiated. Unfortunately, because of the failure of the culture, a cytogenetic evaluation was not possible at that stage. A full remission was induced, but 17 months after the onset of the disease the patient developed chronic myelogenous leukemia.

[4 cases of acquired Willebrand factor deficiency associated with monoclonal dysglobulinemia].

Acquired von Willebrand syndrome is reported in four patients with monoclonal IgG: benign gammapathy in three cases, multiple myeloma in one case; to our knowledge, this last association has not been previously reported. Coagulation abnormalities included a borderline bleeding time, a low platelet retention on glass beads, decreased levels of factor VIII coagulant activity (VIII: C), factor VIII related-antigen (VIII R: Ag) and ristocetin induced agglutination cofactor (VIII R: RC). The late clinical onset, the negative family history and the immunological abnormality suggest an acquired von Willebrand syndrome.

[Ultrastructural peroxidases and immunological markers in acute adult leukaemia: therapeutic applications (author's transl)].

In a retrospective study of 112 adult patients with acute leukaemia (AL), the percentage of undifferentiated leukaemia was reduced to almost 1% by an analysis of routine cytochemical reactions (PAS, peroxidase, esterases and esterase inhibition), B and T lymphocyte markers (IgS, E-rosettes, HuTLA) cAll antigen and ultrastructural detection of peroxidase activity (PO-ME). A simultaneous study of cALL antigen and PO-ME showed reciprocal exclusion of these markers, except in one case of mixed leukaemia. Therapeutically, the value of these tests lies in that patients with typical PAS reaction and cALL antigen consistently respond to vincristine- corticosteroid treatment, whereas patients without cALL and with PO-ME are frequently resistant to that combination of drugs.

[Early evaluation of therapeutic response in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. A study of cytoreduction in blood and bone marrow (author's transl)].

Cytoreduction was evaluated during the first week of induction treatment in 29 adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. In 25 patients a slope of decrement of circulating blasts between the 1st and 7th days of treatment could be drawn on a semilogarithmic scale. The fall of the medullary blast index was calculated in bone marrow obtained by aspiration in 17 cases and by aspiration plus biopsy in 11 cases.

Determination of ultrastructural peroxidases and immunologic membrane markers in the diagnosis of acute leukemias.

Detection of membrane markers and ultrastructural peroxidase activity was carried out on the blasts of 16 apparently nonmyeloid adult acute leukemias. These patients were selected from 73 adult leukemic patients by the negativity of their routine cytochemical myeloid markers: i.e.