Agewise distribution of idiopathic cold agglutinin disease.

The author reviews the age distribution of cases of idiopathic cold agglutinin disease. The mean age in 183 cases is 61.9 years, 82.5% of the patients being between 50 and 90 years old. This means that idiopathic cold agglutinin disease must be considered a disease of old age.

[Iron therapy in mental aberrations (pica) in childhood]. / Eisentherapie bei psychischen Aberrationen (Pica) im Kindesalter.

Besides of four pica cases (eating of dirt, paper, cotton, oakum, sand, lime, chalk) the authors report on a girl with trichophagia. The treatment of choice in pica consists in a sufficient supply of iron. The authors suggest that the intravenously administered iron acts on some centers of the central nervous system.

Primary acquired sideroblastic anemia and myelodysplastic syndrome from a geriatric point of view.

The median age of occurrence of primary acquired sideroblastic anemia is 74.4 years, with a range of 12 to 96 years (calculated from 452 cases). Of 445 cases, 60.4% were male, and 39.6% female. Not only primary acquired sideroblastic anemia, but the entire myelodysplastic syndrome must be considered as a disease of old age.

[Trichophagia treated successfully by intravenous iron injections]. / Intravénás vas-injekciókkal kezelhetö trichophagia esete.

The case of a trichophagic child is presented. Oral and intramuscular iron therapy brought only temporary effect at the age of 3. Seven years later the 10-year-old highly intelligent girl ate again hair. She was not anaemic and her serum iron level was not low. Intravenous iron injections applied again ceased immediately the psychic aberration that did not return even after 4 years. The authors are of the opinion that in cases of such psychic anomalies the iron content of the iron-rich cerebral ganglia is lower than normal and the disturbance can be ceased by the administration of iron.

Data concerning the neurohemolytic syndrome.

In two beta-thal cases, hemiparesis and cerebral circulatory insufficiency were observed. The so-called "neurohemolytic syndrome" may be causally related to extramedullary hemopoiesis; microscopic or even macroscopic formations may cause spinal cord or other nerve compressions.

[The simultaneous occurrence of chronic lymphatic leukemia with malignant tumors and the lymphatic reaction caused by malignant growths]. / Beitrag zum gemeinsamen Vorkommen von chronisch lymphatischer Leukämie mit malignen Tumoren und über die durch Malignome verursachte lymphozytäre Reaktion.

In 352 patients affected with chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL) the authors simultaneously detected a solid second tumour 22 times (= 6.22%) (6 cancers of the prostrate, 5 cancers of the skin, 4 cancers of the uterus, 2 cancers of the stomach, 2 cancers of the lung, one case of rectal and mamma cancer each and one case of eye sarcoma). In one third of the cases the two malignomas were simultaneously detected, thus it was excluded that the second tumour was induced by the antimitotic treatment of the primary disease. In seven cases the solid tumour was identified after diagnosing CLL, without any cytostatic therapy having been made here before. In addition, a report is given on a patient showing symptoms of gastric cancer not radically removed and a lymphocytic reaction. Initially, the case was explained as gastric adenocancer with simultaneous CLL because even 5 years after surgical treatment there were 16-20 X 10(6)/l of leukocytes with 64% of lymphocytes in the peripheral blood and 85% of lympho-reticular cells in the bone marrow. Two years later, however, the blood picture was normal and remained to be unchanged further on. Thus, it seems that the healing of the gastric cancer has caused the lymphocytic reaction to have ceased. In addition, it should be noted that in 1974 the patient suffered from an epithelium after a scratch-mark on the nose tip, which was irradiated, however, without eliciting any lymphocytic reaction. The patient is still alive (June 1985).

Unclassified type of congenital dyserythropoietic anaemia (CDA) with prominent peripheral erythroblastosis.

Two unrelated cases of congenital dyserythropoietic anaemia (CDA) are described. They show striking similarities which could not be attributed to one of the well-known types of CDA or any other congenital disease of the erythroid system. Both patients were followed for many years before and after splenectomy. There was a long-lasting, prominent post-splenectomy erythroblastosis, suggesting impairment of red cell denucleation. The type of heredity is unknown, and the enzymatic or molecular basis of the changes observed is not understood.