High number of circulating CD34+ cells in patients with myelophthisis.

Six patients with bone marrow micrometastases from solid cancers presented with increased numbers of circulating CD34+ cells; the CD34+ cell counts were very high in some cases. By contrast, no patient with metastatic cancer without bone marrow involvement showed raised numbers of circulating hemopoietic progenitors.

[Differentiating agents in myelodysplastic syndromes. Analysis of personal cases]. / Agenti differenzianti nelle mielodisplasie. Analisi della casistica personale.

The Myelo-Dysplastic Syndromes are a heterogeneous group of diseases which includes patients with different prognosis. There is no agreement about the management and the therapeutic strategy must be based on many individual parameters, particularly the age of the patients and their performance status. The therapeutic options range from no cytotoxic therapy for low-risk patients up to more aggressive treatment for high-risk patients, with disappointing results except for the very few cases eligible for allogenic bone marrow transplantation. The leukaemic cell can be induced to differentiate, so losing its self-maintenance potential; different drugs such as Interferon, vitamin D3, retinoids and arabinosyl-cytosine (low doses) have shown a differentiating action on myeloid blasts in "vitro". We summarize the general strategy in the treatment of myelo-dysplastic syndromes based on literature data, and on our results about the efficacy and tolerance of a combination of the above mentioned differentiating drugs, in a group of 27 elderly patients affected by myelodysplastic syndrome with poor prognosis. We obtained 14 objective responses (52%), and the median overall survival of these patients have been compared with that of 25 patients with severe myelodysplastic syndrome treated with a conventional regimen. In the 27 patients receiving the differentiating combination the median survival was found to be 14.7 months, versus 8.4 months for the control group. The results obtained are encouraging about the tolerance and the efficacy of this combination in elderly patients with a poor MDS prognosis. Further randomized studies are necessary to establish whether this treatment can really improve the survival in this group of patients.

Biochemical values, complement levels, and hemostatic data in septic leukoerythroblastosis.

Recently, the association of granulocytic fragments on blood smear with leukoerythroblastosis in sepsis has been identified in nine patients. Granulocytic fragments were identified by both light and electron microscopy as well as cytochemistry. Leukoerythroblastosis is a poorly defined, uncommon syndrome with leukocytosis, left shift, and nucleated red blood cells (nRBCs) disproportionate to the degree of anemia, which may be associated with leukemia or neoplasia in the bone marrow, acute infection, hemolysis, myelofibrosis, or miscellaneous causes. Here a subgroup with high white blood cells (WBC) and acute infection was studied. The corrected WBC for nine patients was 40 x 10(9) per L with 33 nRBC per 100 WBC; serum C3 and C4 levels before and after the development of leukoerythroblastosis were 0.6 +/- 2 g per L; 0.18 +/- 0.04 g per L pre-leukoerythroblastosis and 0.7 +/- 0.46 g per L; 0.30 +/- 0.27 g per L post-leukoerythroblastosis, respectively, in four patients. The platelet count, prothrombin time (PT), and activated partial prothrombin time (aPTT) were 133 x 10(9) per L, 24.4 sec., and 53.5 sec., respectively, for nine patients. Multiphasic chemistries at the time of leukoerythroblastosis were measured in five patients; abnormal values included calcium of 2.0 +/- 0.4 mmol per L, creatinine of 336 +/- 130 mumol per L, total protein of 45 +/- 17 g per L, albumin of 27 +/- 11 g per L, total bilirubin of 421 +/- 362 mumol per L, uric acid of 499 +/- 264 mumol per L, triglycerides of 4.9 +/- 3.7 mmol per L, and alkaline phosphatase of 3.5 +/- 1.0 mu kat per L.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)