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Biomedical subjects

E Montserrat

Publications and source records attributed to E Montserrat.

At least 289 records · Page 16Linked to original sources

Criteria for severe aplastic anaemia.

To study the validity of currently accepted international criteria for severe aplastic anaemia, 213 consecutive cases of bone marrow aplasia from a single institution were analysed. The distribution percentiles of peripheral blood values and multivariate analysis showed that the current reticulocyte count limit of 1% (corrected for haematocrit) is inadequate an an indicator of severe disease and should be substantially lowered. Since the choice of treatment in aplastic anaemia may depend on the prognosis current criteria for severe aplastic anaemia should be modified.

Adult↗

"Spontaneous" complete remissions in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: report of three cases and review of the literature.

"Spontaneous" complete remissions (SCR) are a rare event in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In this article, we report three cases of SCR observed in a series of 285 patients followed at a single institution during the last 15 years. SCR was documented by clinical and hematologic data, including bone marrow biopsy, and immune cell markers. A delay of 0.9-1.6 years between "clinical" and "clonal" remission was observed. A review of other cases of SCR in CLL is also performed.

Aged↗

Bone marrow biopsy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a review of its prognostic importance.

In recent years important advances have been made in predicting the survival of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Other prognostic factors in addition to clinical staging systems have proved to be of value. Among them, bone marrow biopsy has emerged as a particularly useful prognostic tool. Patients with nondiffuse bone marrow involvement survive longer than those with diffuse involvement. This parameter is useful for subclassifying clinical stages in low- (nondiffuse patterns) and high- (diffuse patterns) risk groups. The use of a combined clinicopathological staging system for CLL seems advisable.

Biopsy↗

Lymphocyte doubling time in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: an update of its prognostic significance.

Clinical staging systems represent an important advance in predicting the course speed of CLL. Clinical staging systems do not, however, offer information with respect to the speed of evolution of the disease. Lymphocyte doubling time (LDT) is a simple parameter that is useful in arriving at a valid prognosis in CLL. Whereas a high LDT (greater than 12 months) identifies a population with a very good prognosis (median survival, not reached), a low LDT (less than or equal to 12 months) is associated with a poorer survival (median survival, 58 months). In addition, a short LDT predicts rapid disease progression in patients in the early clinical stages.

Female↗

Prognostic factors in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The Rai staging system is widely used and is easy to apply in clinical practice. The system introduced by Binet et al offers an advantage that it consists only of three stages and, therefore, is more practical for initiation of controlled therapeutic trials than the five-stage Rai system. However, when we take into consideration the survival curves, it is important to note that the Rai system has three groups (and not five), low risk (stage O), intermediate risk (stages I and II), and high risk (stages III and IV). These groups are roughly equivalent to Binet's A, B, and C stages, respectively. Although the IWCLL has recommended a unified, integrated method of combining Binet and Rai systems, in practice, however, such a combination is cumbersome and unusable. Both systems, however, suffer from an important limitation--they cannot predict for the large majority of patients in the low and intermediate risk groups (Binet's stages A and B and Rai's O, I, and II) who will have an indolent course and good prognosis in contrast to those in the same stages whose disease will progress rapidly. It is necessary, therefore, to combine the bone marrow histology findings, the lymphocyte doubling time and the threshold values of blood lymphocyte count with the clinical staging systems to distinguish between indolent disease course and aggressive disease on a prospective basis within a given clinical stage.

Bone Marrow↗

Treatment of alkylating resistant multiple myeloma with vincristine, BCNU, doxorubicin and prednisone (VBAP).

A total of 33 evaluable patients with multiple myeloma refractory to alkylating agents were treated with the regimen vincristine, BCNU, doxorubicin, and prednisone (VBAP) at 3-week intervals in a single institution for a 5-yr period. An overall response rate of 21.2% was achieved (9% objective plus 12.2% improvement). Treatment was well tolerated. The overall median survival was 7.5 months. However, responding patients attained a median survival of 27.4 months vs. 5 months for similarly treated nonresponding subjects (P = 0.051). These results indicate that VBAP is an effective treatment for a proportion of patients with advanced refractory multiple myeloma.

Adult↗

Lymphocyte doubling time in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: analysis of its prognostic significance.

In 100 untreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) lymphocyte doubling time (LDT) has been investigated in relationship with clinical stages, bone marrow histological patterns, treatment-free period and survival. Although partially correlated with clinical stages and bone marrow patterns, LDT has a clear prognostic significance by itself: whereas a LDT of 12 or less months identifies a population of patients with poor prognosis, a LDT higher than 12 months is indicative of good prognosis as substantiated by a long treatment-free period and survival. This simple parameter can be useful in the clinical management of CLL patients.

Adult↗