[Atrophy of the bone marrow].

The authors made a quantitative analysis of the active hematopoietic tissue of the bone marrow with particular consideration of its atrophy in the course of various diseases. The material consisted of 407 non-selected autopsy cases. For a morphometric analysis the bone marrow was sampled from the sternum, ala ossis illi and spine. In the quantitative analysis of the active hematopoietic tissue we took into account age groups as quantitative changes appear with age. Atrophy of the bone marrow was in 19.4% of the studied cases. The presence of bone marrow atrophy was found in the course of various diseases, most frequently neoplastic, particularly in patients aged from 50 to 59 years.