[Development of aseptic osteonecrosis during the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia: review of the literature and author's own data].

We report a case of aceptic osteonecrosis (AON) of the left hymerus epiphysis in programmed treatment of a male patient with lymphoblastic lymphoma to illustrate clinical, laboratory, epidemiological, pathogenetic, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of AON in programmed therapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). We believe that AON is a rather frequent but often missed for early diagnosis complication of ALL treatment. Even a weak pain in bones and joints under mechanical load in patients on long-term treatment with glucocorticosteroids is an alarming symptom which may indicate a risk of an osteodestructive process and relevant diagnostic and therapeutic measures may be needed.

[Chromosomal aberrations in myelodysplastic syndrome].

AIM: To analyse incidence rate of chromosomal aberrations in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), specification of clinicomorphological features of some cytogenetic variants. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Chromosomal analysis by the method of G-differential staining of chromosomes was made in 209 patients with different variants of MDS. RESULTS; Clonal chromosomal aberrations occured in 60.8%. The following aberrations were found most frequently: deletion of the long arm of the chromosome 5 (del(5q)) - 34.6%, trisomy of chromosome 8 (14.1%), monosomy of chromosome 7 (13.4%), aberrations 3q21q26 (12.6%), aberrations of a long arm of X-chromosome (4.7%), the absence of Y-chromosome (3.1%). Complex aberrations of karyotype were found in 13.5% cases. Chromosomal aberrations determined not only clinical and morphological features but also the prognosis of the disease. CONCLUSION: Cytogenetic examination is an essential component of MDS patients examination. It allows more precise classification of MDS variant and prognostification of the disease course.

[An evaluation of the prognostic significance of antigen CD95(Fas/APO-1) expression on the cells of patients with a myelodysplastic syndrome, acute myeloid leukemia and chronic myeloleukemia]. / Otsenka prognosticheskoi znachimosti ékspressii antigena CD95(Fas/APO-1) na kletkakh bol'nykh s mielodisplasticheskim sindromom, ostrym mieloidnym leikozom i khronicheskim mieloleikozom.

AIM: The expression of CD95(Fas/APO-1) antigen was studied on bone marrow cells of 19 MDS patients, peripheral blood blast cells of 15 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, blast cells and granulocytes of 68 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)--24 in chronic, 9 in accelerated phase and 35 in blastic crisis (BC)--by indirect surface immunofluorescence assay using flow cytometry (FACScan, Becton Dickinson, USA). RESULTS: CD95(Fas/APO-1) antigen was revealed on bone marrow cells of 8 out of 19 (36.8%) MDS patients; the percentage of antigen-positive cells was 38.1 +/- 19.2%; on 45.5 +/- 22.8% of cells in 6(45%) of 15 AML patients. Fas/APO-1 antigen was totally absent in CML chronic stage; its expression was found in 34% (12 of 35) of our patients with CML BC on peripheral blood blasts and in 56% (5 of 9) on peripheral blast cells of CML patients in acceleration phase. CONCLUSION: The data on overall survival of CD95-positive MDS patients suggest that the presence of Fas antigen is a favorable prognostic sign for patients with MDS. The patients from CD95-negative group represent a risk group both for survival and AML transformation. In CML BC group the survival does not depend upon Fas-antigen expression.