A correlation was made between chromosomal findings in the marrow of AML patients obtained during the course of the disease, some of the clinical and cytologic features, and the survival span of these patients. The median survival time for each patient was obtained by the use of log-probability paper. Of the 69 patients with AML studied, 29 showed abnormal metaphases in the marrow at least once during the course of the disease (A-patients) and 40 did not (N-patients). In the former group, ten cases were never shown to have a normal metaphase (AA-patients), even upon repeated examinations, whereas the remaining 19 cases had at least one normal metaphase during the course of the AML (AN-patients). The median life-span for the A-patients was 8.0 mo and 11.5 mo for the N-patients. Among the former group, the AN-patients had a median life span of 10.3 mo and the AA-patients only 3.2 mo. A dissociation between the proportion of cells with chromosomal abnormalities and the cellular differential in the marrow suggested the appearance of the karyotypic changes in the later stages of the disease in some patients and the presence of such changes in both erythroid and myeloid cells in erythroleukemia. The results indicate the importance of the presence in the marrow of even one normal metaphase in the prognosis of AML and a possible correlation of AA-patients with acute erythroleukemia.

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© 1973 by American Society of Hematology, Inc.
1973
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