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Biomedical subjects

P Reizenstein

Publications and source records attributed to P Reizenstein.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

Treatment of acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia in adults with daunorubicin-DNA complex: a preliminary report.

Forty-four adult patients under 60 years of age with acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia were randomized for induction treatment with one of the following three regimens: R 1 = courses of daunorubicin on day 1 + ARA-C on days 1--5; R 2 = courses of daunorubicin on days 1 and 2 + ARA-C on days 4--8; R 3 = courses of daunorubicin-DNA complex on days 1--2 + ARA-C on days 4--8. Out of 14 patients, 9 went into remission on R 1, 6 out of 14 on R 2, and 8 out of 16 on R 3. The preliminary results suggest that daunorubicin-DNA complex has the same efficacy for inducing remission as daunorubicin alone, if the same time intervals and dosages are used.

Acute Disease↗

Cardiomyopathy in leukemia, with reference to rubidomycin cardiotoxicity.

Sixteen patients who had died with leukemia were studied at autopsy between September 1975 and Februrary 1977. Special attention was given to degenerative changes in the heart. Five of the patients died of cardiac failure, all with no or only slight leukemic infiltration in various organs at autopsy. Five patients showed basophilic necroses in the myocardium, and two of these also showed necroses in the bone marrow. The myocardial lipofuscin was significantly (P less than 0.01) higher in the autopsies of leukemic patients (mean age 45 years) than in autopsies performed at the Department of Forensic Medicine in 18 cases of accidental death (mean age 36 years). No dose-response relationship could be found between the amount of myocardial lipofuscin and the total dose of rubidomycin. Eight of twelve patients with malignant lymphoma (mean age 45 years) also had increased amount of myocardial lipofuscin.

Adult↗

Electrolytes and whole body potassium in acute leukemia.

In a consecutive series of 22 patients with acute leukemia, the total body potassium was studied in 18 patients on 39 occasions during relapse and remission. Total body water was also determined. A control group consisting of 88 age-matched healthy volunteers was also studied. The patients had a significantly lower mean potassium concentration, per kg body weight, per kg lean body mass and per kg water, than the controls (p less than 0.001). Individually, 11 out of the 18 patients had at least one value below the lower 95% confidence limit. Hypokalemia was frequent both in the patients with low (7/11) and normal (3/6) potassium per kg lean body mass. Five of 13 investigated patients showed laboratory indications of secondary hyperaldosteronism, which might be partly responsible for the hypokalemia. Increased serum or urine levels of lysozyme were found in 62% of the patients.

Adult↗

Effect of Clostridium perfringens neuraminidase on viability and antigenicity of human leukemic myeloblasts.

The effect of increasing concentrations of Cl. Perfringens neuraminidase and of pH on the dye exclusion ability and lymphocyte stimulating capacity of leukemic myeloblasts was studied. The higher the neuraminidase concentration, or the lower the pH was, the more myeloblasts died and the less the myeloblasts stimulated lymphocytes. Myeloblasts treated at a neutral pH and at low enzyme concentrations retained, but did not increase their antigenicity.

Cell Survival↗

Oxymetholone treatment in myelofibrosis.

In order to study the effect of oxymetholone therapy in advanced myelofibrosis, 11 patients (4 females, 7 males) were given, 3--5 mg per kg body weight, long-term oxymetholone treatment in a prospective multicenter study. Five cases had previously had a diagnosis of polycythemia vera. All patients had anemia initially, 4 leukocytopenia and 10 thrombocytopenia in addition. Hepato-splenomegaly was present in all cases but in varying degree. Five patients required regular blood transfusions before treatment. In 9 of the 15 courses given, there was normalization of the peripheral blood or substantial improvement (better than 3 g hemoglobin/dl or 50 X 10(9) platelets/1) after androgens. Significant effects were noted both on hemoglobin values and platelet counts. The need for blood transfusions ceased completely in all 5 cases. When oxymetholone treatment was reduced or interrupted 4 patients relapsed; 2 of them responded to a renewed course. The red cell counts returned to previous polycythemic values in one patient and another died from acute leukemia. The results of this study suggest that androgens might be of value in advanced cases of myelofibrosis with transfusion-requiring anemia or severe thrombocytopenia.

Aged↗

Staging of myeloma. A preliminary study of staging factors and treatment in different stages.

Attempts were made to find prognostic factors in myeloma. In 16 deceased patients, urinary light chains, skeletal lesions, and the quantity of the monoclonal protein fraction in the serum were correlated to prognosis, in contrast to the electrophoretic mobility of the monoclonal fraction, the hemoglobin, the serum creatinine value, the serum calcium, or the intestinal calcium absorption. Skeletal calcium uptake was only numerically higher in mild myeloma than in advanced myeloma. Since these findings partially agreed with the staging procedure previously proposed by Salmon, a modification of this procedure was used to stage 50 myeloma patients. Survival was statistically significantly shorter in stage III than in stage I. A differentiated treatement with melphalan-prednisone in stage I, cytoxan infusions in stage II, and vincristine-cytoxan-prednisone in stage III is proposed. A preliminary comparison of nine patients in stage II-III given intensive treatment with 23 given melphalan-prednisone suggests a numerically, but not as yet a statistically significant increase in survival in the intensively treated group, which seems to have an 80% 2-year survival.

Adult↗

Management of septicemia and early death in acute leukemia.

The frequency of fever days was measured in 67 patients with acute leukemia in the initial phase until remission was obtained or the patient died. A total of 3411 hospital days were studied. Three antibiotic schedules were examined between 1970 and 1975. There were 50% fever days when penicillin and streptomycin were combined as initial antibiotics, 37% when cephalosporin and gentamycin were used, and 31% when, in addition, semi-isolation was used prophylactically and granulocytes were given in a therapeutic attempt (0.05 greater than p greater than 0.01). The corresponding frequencies of early death were 9/21 (43%), 6/23 (26%) and 5/23 (22%). Early death occurred on an average 14, 23 and 21 days after admission. The frequencies of remission (complete and partial) were 8/21 (38%), 12/23 (52%), and 13/23 (57%). A randomized subgroup (12 patients) with intestinal sterilization was studied separately. It had 28% fever days, which is significantly less (p less than 0.01) than in the 13 patients given the same systemic antibiotics without intestinal sterilization. Fever was significantly lower (0.05 greater than p greater than 0.01) on the day after a series of granulocyte transfusions than before, although only 10(9) granulocytes were given. However, this fever reduction may have been due to concomitant antibiotics.

Acute Disease↗

Metabolic studies of iron-poly (sorbitol-gluconic acid) complex, Ferastral.

The metabolism of iron-poly (sorbitol-gluconic acid) complex (Ferastral) was studied in 6 blood donors with latent iron deficiency and 13 patients with manifest iron deficiency anaemia. Between 125 and 1 000 mg of iron were injected. In latent deficiency an average of 19% of the dose given was excreted during the first two weeks. The corresponding figure for patients with manifest iron deficiency was 11%. An average of 8% of the dose was retained at the site of injection after 40 days. In the two groups, respectively, 61% (range 47%-70%) and 58% (range 24%-86%) of the iron retained was incorporated into red cells after 40 days, which is judged to be quite satisfactory. Some local side effects were observed.

Adult↗

Studies on human preleukaemia. I. Erythroblast and iron kinetics in aregenerative anaemia with hypercellular bone marrow.

In 34 patients with aregenerative anaemia and hypercellular bone marrow, a condition earlier suggested to be of a preleukaemic nature, erythroblast thymidine labelling indices (LI) were significantly decreased, as would be expected in preleukaemia. The 59Fe erythrocyte incorporation after 2 weeks was generally low. The 59Fe plasma clearance was fast in 22 of 31 patients, normal in 5 and moderately prolonged in 4. These 4 patients had a low relative number of erythroblasts in the marrow. A significant relationship between the marrow erythroblast number and the 59Fe plasma clearance could be demonstrated. Cases with an increased number of mueloblasts in the marrow did differ significantly from the rest in LI and iron incorporation.

Adult↗

Hypersensitive reactions and antibody formation during L-asparaginase treatment of children and adults with acute leukemia.

One hundred and fourteen patients with acute leukemia, 57 children (10 AML and 47 ALL) and 57 adults (37 AML and 20 ALL) were treated with L-asparaginase (Asnase) 200 or 1000 IU/kg daily for 30 days unless withdrawn on account of side effects. Combinations with other cytotoxic drugs were used in all but eight patients. Hypersensitive reactions, decrease in Asnase activity in plasma, and bivalent antibodies to Asnase appeared more frequently in adults (28%, 46%, and 79%, respectively) than in children (16%, 17%, and 25% respectively). There was a clear association between these three parameters. Thus hypersensitive reactions generally developed at the time of or after the decrease in plasma Asnase activity. Antibodies were detected only where Asnase activity had disappeared from the plasma. This time sequence, and in vitro experiments, suggest the formation of antigen-antibody complexes which might be responsible for inactivation of Asnase and for the development of hypersensitive reactions. However in many cases antibodies were found without concomitant enzyme inactivation or hypersensitive reactions. Antibodies to Asnase of IgE type (reagins) were found in only 10 children and 6 adults. There was no correlation between hypersensitive reactions, decrease in Asnase activity, and IgE antibodies. The frequency of remission among patients developing bivalent antibodies to Asnase was 68% (13/19) in contrast to 27% (3/11) among patients whose sera contained no detectable antibodies to Asnase, but the difference was not statistically significant.

Adult↗

Autopsy findings in leukaemia.

Out of 38 leukaemic cases only 16 had extensive leukaemic infiltration at death. 15 patients had slight or moderate and 7 no infiltration at all. 12 of the 15, and 5 of the 7 died with septicaemia. The latter patients must have died of complications rather than of the leukaemia itself. Although it has been possible to reduce the incidence of septicaemia during life, terminal septicaemia does not yet seem to be preventable. Septicaemia was revealed at autopsy in 27 of 38 patients; 25 of these also had clinical signs of septicaemia before death. Necrotizing gastrointestinal lesions may cause endogenous infection. In the present material, almost every second patient had fungal septicaemia. Out of 7 patients having oral candidiasis in vivo 5 had systemic candidiasis at autopsy, but only half of the patients with systemic candidiasis had visible oral growth. Modern treatment of leukaemia seems to be able to prevent intracranial haemorrhage in 90% of the cases. On the other hand, vacuolization of muscle and liver tissue was a frequent finding in leukaemia. It is suggested as being caused by fatty degeneration. Vacuolization of myocardial cells was found in 7 out of 13 cases. Among these 7, 4 had had intermittent hypokalaemia.

Acute Disease↗

Oxymetholone treatment in aregenerative anaemia. II. Remission and survival--a prospective study.

This is a prospective multi-center study in which patients with aregenerative anaemia were treated with a standardized high dosage regime of an anabolic steroid (oxymetholone, Anasteron). 53 patients were included and divided into two groups according to bone marrow cellularity. Furthermore the hypocellular group was subdivided in order to make comparison with earlier studies possible. In the hypocellular group, the frequency of remission was 56% and the 2-year-survival from the onset of symptoms was 75%. This is longer than in some earlier studies, perhaps because of possible differences in etiology and/or because of the effect of systematic high dosage, long term androgen therapy. Patient selection was minimized and was not considered to be of major importance. Patients with hypercellular marrows, on the other hand, responded poorly to androgens. In this group 63% died of acute leukaemia, which confirms earlier suggestions that this form of aregenerative anaemia, frequently is of a preleukaemic nature.

Adolescent↗