muramidase and Gingival-Hypertrophy

Between 1978 and 1980, 45 cases of acute monoblastic leukaemia have been diagnosed, treated and followed in our institute. Morphological diagnosis was performed according to the French-American-British classification. Tumoral syndrome (particularly extra-medullary) and hyperleucocytosis were the most striking findings at the time of diagnosis. Cytogenetic analysis performed in 31 cases before treatment has showed that abnormality of the long arm of chromosome 11 seemed to be more frequently associated with the poorly differentiated cytological subtype M5 (a). Intensive chemotherapy with zorubicin and cytosine arabinoside led to complete remission in 75% of the cases. Central nervous system prophylaxis appeared definitively useful in preventing meningeal relapse. Despite a prolongation of the median duration of complete remission which now reaches 12 months, the prognostic is still poor.

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Child; Child, Preschool; Chromosome Aberrations; Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation; Female; Gingival Hypertrophy; Hepatomegaly; Humans; Infant; Leukemia, Monocytic, Acute; Lymphadenitis; Male; Meningeal Neoplasms; Middle Aged; Muramidase; Prognosis; Skin Diseases; Splenomegaly

Acute monocytic leukemia is an uncommon form of acute leukemia. Distinctive clinical features include gingival hypertrophy, lymphoadenopathy, coagulation disorders, and lysozymuria. Blast cell morphology and cytochemistry are diagnostic. Receptors for the Fc fragment of IgG have been demonstrated on the basis of a few cases. The drug VP 16-213 has been shown to be very effective in treatment of untreated and previously treated patients.

Topics: Blood Coagulation Disorders; Cell Nucleus; Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation; Esterases; Etoposide; Gingival Hypertrophy; Histocytochemistry; Humans; Leukemia, Monocytic, Acute; Lymph Nodes; Monocytes; Muramidase; Prednisolone; Vinblastine; Vincristine