[Polycythemia vera as a multiphasic clonal panmyelopathy: diagnostic profile, chronic pathological progression and effect of therapy on the survival of 74 cases]. / La policitemia vera como panmielopatía clonal multifásica: perfil diagnóstico, evolución patocrónica y efecto de la terapéutica sobre la supervivencia de 74 casos.

PURPOSE: 1. To recognise the clinico-biological profile of a group of patients diagnosed of polycythaemia vera (PV) in our centre in the last 30 years. 2. To identify the evolutive patterns of haematological transformation. 3. To evaluate the effect of therapy on the survival. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The clinical records of 74 patients (median age 62 years, male/female = 0.94, followed-up for 6-357 months, median 64 months) were reviewed. Clinico-biological data at diagnosis, therapy, complications and evolution of the haematological picture were evaluated in each case. The actuarial survival in the series was compared to that of the normal population. RESULTS: The clinico-analytical data and diagnostic features were identical to other series reported. Mild increases of bone marrow reticulin was present in two thirds of the cases, overt myelofibrosis being found in only 10% of the patients. Abnormal karyotype was seen in 9% of the patients (11q-, -Y). Phlebotomy was the only treatment in eight cases, without increased incidence of thrombotic phenomena. The remainders received myelosuppressive therapy (32P, busulphan, pipobroman, hydroxyurea, etc.), thrombotic complications appearing in 8 cases and haemorrhagic complications in 4 others. One of these latter patients developed oesophageal carcinoma. The haematological picture evolved into toxic aplastic anaemia in 2 cases; myelofibrosis with myeloid metaplasia (MF/MM) in 8; myelodysplastic sindromes (MDS) in 5, three of them RAEB; and acute myelogenous leukaemia in 3 cases, two of them as the final stage of previous MF/MM and MDS/ RAEB. The actuarial survival was 71% at ten years and 46% at fifteen years, and the median survival as a whole was 13.5 years. CONCLUSIONS: 1: The treatment, mostly myelosuppressive, given to these patients attained a survival similar to that of the general population. 2: Of the cases with known evolution, 15.6% developed MF/MM, its incidence being higher in patients treated only with phlebotomy (37%). 3: The incidence of malignant evolution, i.e., to RAEB/AML, amongst those patients followed-up was 10.6%.

[Immunoproliferative small intestinal disease (IPSID): IPSID-like lymphomas, IPSID equivalents?, in 12 Spanish patients]. / Enfermedad inmunoproliferativa del intestino delgado (EIPID): linfomas "EIPID-símiles"--EIPID-equivalentes?--en doce pacientes españoles.

BACKGROUND: Immunoproliferative small intestine disease (IPSID) encompasses a primary intestinal lymphoma of underpriviliged populations of North Africa, Middle East, etc. This epidemiological feature strongly implicates environmental and host (genetic) factors in its pathogenesis. IPSID can be distinguished on clinicopathological grounds from "Western-type" intestinal lymphomas. "IPSID-like" lymphomas had been sporadically identified, i.e., patients with original clinico-analytical data of IPSID (chronic diarrhoea, malabsortion, clubbing of fingers, diffuse intestinal involvement, etc.) without its conventional histopathologic (lymphoplasmocytic or plasmocytic infiltration) and immunological (alpha-heavy-chain paraprotein) background. PURPOSE: The aim of this study has been: 1) to identify, in a series of small intestine lymphomas, a group of patients with a long-lasting history of chronic diarrhoea and a clinico-biologic pattern of "IPSID-like" lymphoma; 2) to analyze its clinicopathological profile; 3) to search for differences with the pattern of the remaining cases ("Western-type" lymphomas) and 4) To suggest a possible epidemiological significance. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients considered were 12 Spanish caucasians with primary intestinal lymphoma and a long-lasting history of chronic diarrhoea vs 31 cases of "Western-type" intestinal lymphomas admitted in our Hospital over a 33-year period. Statistical significance of differences in clinico-biological features (symptoms/signs, analytical data, patterns of involvement, histopathology, immunophenotype and tumor staging) between these two groups was evaluated using X2 test. RESULTS: The results of this retrospective study allow us to delineate a relatively homogeneous "IPSID-like" group (12 cases) among 43 cases of primary small intestine lymphoma diagnosed between 1960 and 1993. The clinico-pathological behavior of these patients was significantly different from that exhibited by the 31 cases of so-called "Western-type" lymphomas. CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that they may represent a group of patients suffering an evanescent "IPSID-equivalent" disorder (last case diagnosed in 1975), that probably has evolved in similar but not identical epidemiological circumstances to those present in the "Third World" countries of our Mediterranean area.

[Evolutive epidemiologic profile of myelodysplastic syndromes (1959-1993). Comparative study with acute myeloid leukemia and aplastic pancytopenias]. / Perfil epidemiológico evolutivo de los síndromes mielodisplásicos (1959-1993). Estudio comparativo con el de las leucemias agudas mieloides y pancitopenias aplásticas.

PURPOSE: To compare the maximum epidemiologic data attained from myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) with those of two main panmyelopathies, namely acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML) and aplastic pancytopenia (AP). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was carried out on 21,135 patients included in the Bone Marrow Study Registry of the Jiménez Díaz Foundation along 35 years (1959-1993). The data were grouped into seven five-year periods. Of these, in the first three the study was performed on bone-marrow aspirates; after 1976 the histopathological study of bone-marrow biopsies was introduced, and since 1979 the karyotype has been regularly examined. The MDS were classified in accordance with the FAB system. With these premises borne in mind, the following aspects were considered: diagnostic interpretation of MDS along the years; diagnostic incidence of MDS, AML and AP in each of the five-year periods; relative frequency of those diagnosis with respect to the total number of cases; evolutive profile of sex and age at diagnosis; quantitative significance of secondary MDS-AL and toxic AP along the years; MDS subtypes and their epidemiologic characteristics. RESULTS: A total of 510 MDS, 610 AML and 223 AP cases were identified. With respect to the sex of the MDS patients, some changes have been seen along the years, from an M/F ratio of 1.9 to 1.0; and the mean age at diagnosis raised from 53.3 years (with only 1.7% of the cases over 65 years of age) to 71.4 years (with 76.9% of the cases over 65 years of age), all this within the 1959-1989 period. The incidence of AML and AP has remained stable for the last 20 years; on the contrary, MDS have been increasing continuously along the 35 years of the study, which poses for a higher number of new cases in every period (from 35 to 119) and also for a higher relative frequency in the registry (from 1.37% to 4.40%) within the period 1959-1989. Valuable toxic history was progressively increasing in secondary MDS-AML and progressively decreasing in AP. With respect to the FAB subtypes of MDS, and taking into account the last of the five-year periods, the most frequently diagnosed were RA and RSA followed by RAEB, CMML and RAEB-T. CONCLUSIONS: The increment of the incidence of MDS cases correlates significantly with the increment of the patients aged over 65 years. This incidence appears to be scarcely influenced by previous mutagenic agents (radiotherapy, chemotherapy) and might be due to a better understanding of MDS.

[Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura in 5 members of a family]. / Púrpura trombocitopénica idiopática en cinco miembros de una familia.

Five cases of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) appearing on five members of two generations of a family, with autosomal dominant pattern, are presented. The clinico-biologic behaviour of 2 patients (studied and treated by the authors) plus the available data from the 3 others (diagnosed and treated at other hospitals) allowed us to discard any possibility of hereditary non-immunologic thrombocytopenia. The predisposition of ITP patients and their relatives to present clinico-biological features of autoimmune diseases is commented as a possible explanation for the rare forms of familial ITP.

[Detection of translocation (15;17) using cytogenetic and molecular techniques. Comparative study in 15 patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia]. / Detección de la translocación (15; 17) con técnicas citogenéticas y moleculares. Estudio comparativo en 15 pacientes con leucemia aguda promielocítica.

PURPOSES: To analyze the reproducibility to detect the t (15; 17) with molecular and cytogenetic techniques. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fifteen cases of acute promyelocytic leukaemia were studied by means of cytogenetic techniques (GTG banding) and molecular ones (K/S probe and HindIII, EcoRI and BamHI restriction enzymes). RESULTS: The t (15; 17) was detected with cytogenetic techniques in 60% cases and with molecular ones in 33% cases. Using both (cytogenetic and molecular) techniques the translocation was detected in 73% cases. CONCLUSIONS: The use of both techniques may be very useful in order to get a better diagnostic and a closer control of the patient's clinical evolution.

[Clonal myelodysplasia: prognostic stratification and therapeutic possibilities]. / Mielodisplasias clonales: estratificación pronóstica y posibilidades terapéuticas.

Myelodysplastic syndromes represent an entire group of clonal panmyelopathies with very distinct evolutionary pathways. Their common denominator, however, is a self-maintained functional failure of the myeloid hemopoiesis which tends to evolve into severe non-lymphoid leukemia (SNLL) in 20-30% of the cases. First, the prognostic value of each the following is reviewed: the morphological classification F.A.B., the stratification system for "Bournemouth group", the abnormal placement of immature myeloid precursors (ALIP) in bone marrow, and cytogenetic changes. Second, the therapeutic potential for each of the following is assessed: vitamin and support treatments; suprarenal steroids; conventional androgens and danazol; agents of cellular differentiation (cytosine arabinoside in low doses, retinoid acids, vitamin D3, etc.). Finally, the role of aggressive chemotherapies (in succession or unrelated to marrow transplant) in the eradication of myelodysplastic clone or post-myelodysplasia SNLL is examined.