Syndrome of anaemia, thrombocytopenia and subnormal granulocyte function in elderly patients

Function of neutrophils in preleukaemia

The function of blood neutrophil granulocytes was studied in vitro in 17 patients with preleukaemia. 3 patients had a cellular defect of chemotaxis. 2 of them had monosomy-7 in bone marrow karyotype, in 1 associated with the deletion of the long arm of a chromosome 20. The third patient had trisomy-8. In the patient with trisomy-8, the high percentage of band neutrophils was possibly associated with the chemotactic defect. In another patient with trisomy-8 chemotaxis was normal. There was a statisically significant tendency to reduced phagocytosis and impaired ability to kill Staphylococcus aureus. 1 patient with a chemotactic defect and monosomy-7 suffered from repeated infections. The other 2 patients with defective chemotaxis had several febrile episodes most probably of infectious origin, and 1 of them died in sepsis. All of these 3 patients had cutaneous abscesses. It is concluded that defects in neutrophil granulocyte function are not uncommon in preleukaemia and may result in reduced resistance to infection.

[Haematological and immunological findings in bone marrow aplasia (author's transl)]

The cellularity of the bone marrow, the number of blood cells and the immunoglobulins were investigated in 51 patients suffering from bone marrow aplasia. In this disease not only is a haematopoietic organ disturbed, but disorders of the lymphocyte and of the monocyte-systems can be detected too: the majority of patients show lymphocytopenia and monocytopenia. Immunologic reactions seem to be involved in the pathogenesis of bone marrow aplasia. The plasma cells of the bone marrow are elevated in nearly all of the patients, lymphocytes in every second case. One or several fractions of immunoglobulins are increased in about 50% and diminished in 25% of the patients.