Use of flowcytometry in diagnosis of t-acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children hospital, Damascus - Syria

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia [ALL] is a malignancy of immature lymphoid cells, which comprises the highest incidence of acute leukemia in children. Many attempts were made to morphologically classify ALL. Most of these were unsuccessful either because of its technical difficulties, or because it lakes the clinical significance. Hence the immuno classification is more specific and shows that leukemia may occur in different stages of lymphoid maturation. T-ALL is a neoplasm of lymphoblasts committed to the T cell linage and observed in 20% of the children who suffer from ALL. Also it is more common in young adults, and in males rather than females. It manifests by low count of leukocytes and sometimes by existence of a mass. T-ALL is classified to different stages according to the number of antigens and their expression. Immunophenotyping was achieved for 50 samples collected from children visiting children hospital in Damascus with suspected ALL. 24% of ALL was classified as T-ALL. 83.3% of them were males and 16.7% were females. Occurrence of ALL was 41.7% in the group of 6 - 9 years of age. Also it was found that 58.3%, 25%, 16.7% of the studied samples represented as late T-ALL, Middle T-ALL, and Early T-ALL respectively

Lead Level in Blood of Factories Workers in Syria

The level of lead in blood of Syrian workers in some industries was investigated. It is known that lead could be absorbed through all routes of exposure. Therefore, it is important to follow the level of lead in workers involved in batteries, petrol and paints industries. Lead concentration in blood was determined by atomic absorption. A total of 463 workers divided into 4 groups, in addition to 122 volunteers were screened for their lead level of blood. The results show that an extremely high concentration of lead was found in those working in batteries manufacturing [mean of 523 pg / L], whereas moderate elevation was found in workers involved in paints industry. However, petroleum industry workers showed slight increase in lead concentration but it was not significant. This study proved that many factors might affect lead level in blood, such as: age, duration of exposure, sex, wellbeing status and residence location. It is concluded that workers have lead concentration higher than 200 pg / L should not be in direct contact with any lead-containing product or by-product. The technology used in such industry must be upgraded, and environmental law should be strictly applied in all sectors of industry