[Detection of HTLV-I virus in patients with myeloproliferative hemoblastoses]. / Vyiavlenie virusa HTLV-I u patsientov s mieloproliferativnymi gemoblastozami.

An association of HTLV-I virus with myelomonocytic leukemia was established by serologic and molecular-biologic procedures. Antibodies to one or two HTLV-I proteins were identified in 10 out of 30 patients with myelomonocytic leukemia; both antibodies to certain HTLV-I proteins and an integrated provirus were detected in 3 cases. Upon examination of donor blood, antibodies to one or two HTLV-I proteins were found in 0.8% cases, but only 0.3% of the examined donors were found positive to HTLV-I. This finding points to the presence of said virus in the population of Latvia.

[Acute leukemia with blasts in the shape of a hand mirror]. / Ostryi leikoz s blastami v vide ruchnogo zerkala.

The paper is concerned with a rare case of myeloblastosis with blasts in the form of a hand mirror in the bone marrow. The treatment turned out ineffective. The author provided literature data on the causes of occurrence, unusual blast shape, the frequency and types of leukemia, reactions to therapy and a course of disease in patients with blasts of such a shape.

[An unusual case of a basophilic variant of chronic myelogenous leukemia]. / Ein ungewöhnlicher Fall der basophilen Variante einer chronischen Myelose.

The described basophilic variant of CML in blastic crisis was characterized by a distinct hyperhistaminemia, a moderate hypocoagulation and an insufficiently effective cytostatic therapy. Cell kinetic was characterized by a marked diminution of the whole marketing index (with H3-thymidine) of blasts and immature basophils with simultaneous prolongation of the generation time in comparison to myeloblasts at the chronic stage of the CML. Aneuploid cell clones prevailed in the bone-marrow.

[Familial myeloproliferative syndrome (study of 4 families and review of the literature)]. / Semennyi mieloproliferativnyi sindrom (issledovanie chetyrekh semei i obzor literatury).

The authors describe 4 families whose members showed myeloproliferative diseases. In one of the families, polycythemia vera (PV) was seen in twin brother and sister, in the other one, chronic myeloleukemia (CML) afflicted both daughter and mother, and in the two remaining families PV and CML afflicted two brothers and mother and daughter, respectively. It was established that neutrophil phosphatase activity was lowered not only in the afflicted brother but also in healthy members of the third family. Based on the reported and their own data the authors arrive at the conclusion that familial myeloproliferative diseases occur in rare cases. In all the cases of familial myeloproliferative diseases, the transmission of the illness by heredity was discovered to be impossible. It was also ascertained that transmitted by heredity are only those cell deficiencies of the tissues that later on will be afflicted by leukemia or will develop immunodeficiency manifested by increased mutation of the myelopoietic cells (DNA repair deficiencies) or by inability to eliminate the leukemic cells.

[Characteristics of clonal evolution in patients with myelocytic leukemia]. / Osobennosti klonal'noi evoliutsii u bol'nykh khronicheskim mieloleikozom.

The authors report the results of the clinical, cytochemical, cytogenetic and kinetic studies (3H-thymidine autoradiography and scanning integrating cytospectrophotometry of DNA) in a male patient with chronic myeloleukemia with blast infiltration of the lymph nodes. Analysis of the karyotype and kinetic aspects of leukemic cells obtained from the blood, bone marrow, spleen and hyperplastic lymph nodes was performed over time at different disease periods. Based on the data obtained the authors suggest that aneuploid blasts may maturate before segmented granulocytes. The probability of the medullary origin of aneuploid clones is discussed.