[Lead poisoning. A surprising cause of constipation, abdominal pain and anemia]. / Otrava olovem - prekvapivá prícina bolestí bricha, obstipace a anémie.

This article reports on patient that has been presented with sudden onset of constipation, abdominal pain and normocytic anemia. Gastroscopy and colonoscopy ruled out an organic diseases. In peripheral blood and bone marrow aspirates mears, coarse basophilic stippling of erythrocyte (and erythroblasts) point out a possibility of heavy metal poisoning. The level of plumbemia exceeded 8.4 times the maximal permitted value for common (non-professional) population. A source of poisoning was indentified from a glaze on a ceramic jug, from which the patient had drank tea with lemon for three months. A lead concentration in the tea extract was 227 mg/kg. In developed countries, lead poisoning is a rare diagnosis. As the symptoms are nonspecific, missed diagnoses could occur, especially in sporadic, non-occupational exposure. However, a microscopic evaluation of the peripheral bloods mear with finding of predominantly coarse basophilic stippling of erythrocyte mayle ad to suspicion of lead poisoning.

Acute myeloid leukemia with variant t(8;10;21).

The t(8;21)(q22;q22) is one of the most common chromosomal abnormalities in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Approximately 3-4% of AML cases are associated with additional chromosomal abnormalities. Their impact on the prognosis of the disease remains to be established. Here we report a case of t(8;10;21) AML with mutated c-KIT that shared key morphological features with classical t(8;21) leukemias, including the M2 morphology pattern and CD34, HLA-DR phenotype. The 63-year-old female was treated with two inductioncontaining Daunoribicine and Cytarabine and four cycles of intermediate-dose Cytarabine (1.5 g/m2) and achieved long-lasting remission.

A European consensus report on blood cell identification: terminology utilized and morphological diagnosis concordance among 28 experts from 17 countries within the European LeukemiaNet network WP10, on behalf of the ELN Morphology Faculty.

This paper describes the methodology used to develop a consensual glossary for haematopoietic cells within Diagnostics-WP10 of European-LeukemiaNet EU-project. This highly interactive work was made possible through the use of the net, requiring only a single two-day meeting of actual confrontation and debate. It resulted in the production of a freely accessible tool that could be useful for training as well as harmonization of morphological reports in onco-haematology especially, without geographic limitation, not limited to European countries. Moreover, this collective work resulted in the production of a consensus statement, taking into account individual practices, collegial agreement and literature data.

Impact of transfusion dependency on survival in patients with early myelodysplastic syndrome without excess of blasts.

We present a retrospective analysis of 137 patients with early MDS without excess of blasts that revealed transfusion dependency in 87% of the cases. A significant difference in overall survival was noted between patients receiving 2 units of RBC transfusions/month (65.0 vs. 35.3 months, respectively, P=0.02). Univariate statistical analysis identified the presence of disease progression to advanced MDS (chi(2)=26.4, P=0.001) and the administration of >1 or >2 units of RBC per month (chi(2)=15.9 and 14.6, respectively, P=0.001) as the most important parameters affecting survival. Nevertheless, even the administration of 1 RBC unit every 4-8 weeks had a significantly adverse impact on survival compared to non-transfused patients. Transfusion dependency itself did not affect disease progression as determined by the presence of multilineage dysplasia and adverse karyotype (expressed by the IM-1 or IM-2 score). Multivariate analysis confirmed disease progression towards leukemia as a highly significant independent variable affecting survival (P=0.0001). None of the other evaluated parameters had a significant impact on survival in patients with progressive disease. In non-transplanted patients without MDS progression, administration of >2 units of RBC transfusions/month was the only independent variable with adverse impact on survival in patients with unilineage erythroid dysplasia (P=0.02). In patients with multilineage dysplasia, only heavy transfusion dependency (>3TURBC/month) and serum ferritin >2000 microg/l adversely affected survival (P=0.03). Modification of the WPSS by replacing transfusion dependency with initial Hb level <80 g/l retained its prognostic relevance and allowed the identification of a potential risk subset of early MDS patients with intermediate and high scores and limited survival (<40% at 5 years) as early as at the time of diagnosis. Our results confirm a significant negative impact of transfusion dependency on survival in patients with early MDS without excess of blasts. The main risk subgroup is characterized by unilineage dysplasia limited to erythropoiesis in combination with dependency on >2TU of RBC per month. These patients usually have prolonged survival that leads to the development of heavy transfusion iron overload and they thus represent the most important target group for intensive chelation therapy.