B J Bain

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..The molecular mechanisms underlying the great majority of cases of Philadelphia-negative chronic myeloid leukaemia remain to be discovered...

..Polycythaemic as well as anaemic patients require blood film examination...

..The molecular mechanism is often a fusion gene, incorporating part of PDGFRA or PDGFRB, encoding anaberrant tyrosine kinase. Prompt diagnosis of such cases is important since specific tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy is indicated...

..Despite the logistic problems and economic constraints, neonatal haemoglobinopathy screening is also being gradually introduced in a number of African countries...

..A constant awareness of potential pitfalls and an assessment of the aspirate in the appropriate clinical context will help to reduce errors...

..Capillary electrophoresis is being increasingly used. All these methods permit only a presumptive diagnosis with definitive diagnosis requiring either DNA analysis or protein analysis, for example by tandem mass spectrometry...

..A signed or computer authorised report should be issued in a timely manner. If the report is a preliminary, this must be clearly stated...

..An interpretation of the findings, in the light of the clinical and haematological features, should be given. The report should be signed or computer authorised, using a secure password, and issued in a timely manner...

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..The roles of various therapeutic modalities-including cytotoxic chemotherapy, interferon and bone marrow transplantation-in eosinophilic leukemia and in the idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome also have been further defined...

..Other potential risk factors were warfarin therapy, disseminated intravascular coagulation and obesity...

..Further data and the final diagnosis are then provided. The slide session is presented here, as it occurred at the meeting...

..To determine the role of Perls' staining in bone marrow trephine biopsy sections...

..These observations suggest that ethnic neutropenia observed in those with African ancestry is likely to result from reduced numbers of bone marrow progenitor cells in comparison with numbers present in Caucasians...

..Diagnostic problems dealt with included lymphoproliferative and myeloproliferative disorders and haemolytic anaemia...

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..In conclusion, unless improved performance can be demonstrated, use of this kit cannot be recommended...

..One patient suffered considerable pain for 2 weeks. The adverse event may have contributed to death in two patients and in a third patient was life-threatening. Risk factors for adverse events were identified...

..Three consecutive years have now been surveyed, the results for 2003 being presented here and compared with earlier results...

..Persistently high proviral load appears to predate the development of HTLV-I-associated inflammation in neuro-ophthalmic tissue...

..The tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib mesylate specifically inhibits ABL, PDGFR, and KIT kinases and has impressive clinical efficacy in BCR-ABL-positive chronic myeloid leukemia...

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..To identify how many particles should be examined to enable a confident assessment of the presence or absence of iron stores and the quantity of iron in a bone marrow aspirate to be made...

..In addition, SC differed from SS in having fewer classical sickle cells and nucleated red cells, more irregularly-contracted cells and less polychromasia and evidence of hyposplenism...

..An increased percentage of CD34-positive and CD117-positive cells suggested a diagnosis of pure erythroleukemia. Further investigations were performed...

..15 min, the normal retention time being 1.08-1.15 min. Haemoglobinopathy laboratories need to be alert to the possibility of this erroneous result...

..Transfusion programmes ameliorate the symptoms of sickle cell disease but the dangers of iron overload should always be remembered...

..In countries with limited health resources, its use would reduce the number of samples requiring referral to a central laboratory for definitive tests...

..On the high-performance liquid chromatography instrument studied, haemoglobin A(2)' fell in the haemoglobin S window but its retention time differed from that of haemoglobin S...

..c-KIT mutations may play a significant role in the biology of mast cell malignancies, although other mutations may be needed for a malignant phenotype...

..A 56-year-old woman presented with acute myeloid leukemia 3 years after presenting with carcinoma of the breast. Detailed investigations led to a precise diagnosis...

..The haemoglobin A2 may be high enough to lead to a misdiagnosis of beta thalassemia trait if there is a lack of awareness of this unexpected effect of HIV infection and its treatment...

..The sensitivity was 95% and specificity 86%. The single-tube osmotic fragility test is potentially useful in under-resourced laboratories although it cannot replace automated red cell indices using electronic counters...

..An elderly man presented with a macrocytic anemia with severe reticulocytopenia. The observation of trilineage dysplasia in addition to red cell aplasia led to a diagnosis...

..There was bone marrow infiltration by small apparently lymphoid cells, many with cytoplasmic tails; these cells were CD56(+) and weakly CD4(+). A provisional diagnosis was confirmed by further immunophenotyping...

..A young man presented with systemic symptoms and marked eosinophilia. Subsequently cyclical weight gain and edema contributed to a diagnosis...

..A 39-year-old man presented with a pruritic rash, abdominal pain, weight loss and eosinophilia. A subsequent emergency laparotomy disclosed the nature of his underlying illness and the cause of the eosinophilia...

..A diagnosis of eosinophilic leukemia was suspected in a patient who presented with eosinophilia and a mild macrocytic anemia and was found to have trisomy 8. Further tests and the subsequent clinical course permitted an accurate diagnosis...

..A man in late middle age presented with fever, systemic symptoms, raised inflammatory markers and anaemia of chronic disease. Despite two months of investigation, the diagnosis of a haematological malignancy was made only at autopsy...

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..The latest annual survey documented 15 adverse events, mainly hemorrhagic, among 20323 procedures...