Demonstration of ectopic pregnancy by transvaginal ultrasound

Summary. Transvaginal ultrasound was used in the assessment of 148 patients clinically suspected of having an ectopic pregnancy. Transvaginal ultrasound allowed earlier demonstration of an intrauterine pregnancy without confusion with a pseudosac. Of the 36 patients with an ectopic pregnancy, this was strongly suspected in 29 (81%). A live extrauterine fetus was seen in 8 (22%), ectopic trophoblast or a gestation-sac-like structure in 19 (53%), and a pelvic haematoma in 2 (6%). Transvaginal ultrasound is advocated as the technique of choice in patients suspected of having an ectopic pregnancy.     

Cytogenetically different leukemic clones at relapse of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Sequential analysis of blast cell chromosomes in 98 cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) disclosed entirely different karyotypes for nine patients at the time of relapse. The presenting clinical, immunophenotypic, and cytogenetic features of this subgroup were similar to those of the 89 patients without major karyotypic shifts. The median length of initial remissions in these nine patients, all of whom received intensive multiagent therapy, was 24 months (range, 6 to 35); responses to subsequent treatment have been uniformly poor. Prominent cytogenetic changes included a gain of modal chromosome numbers in five cases, a loss of chromosomes in two, and the acquisition of an 11q23 rearrangement in three. We propose several different mechanisms to account for these findings. In one, the presence of an entirely different ALL karyotype at relapse may represent induction of secondary leukemia analogous to the well- described entity of epipodophyllotoxin-related secondary acute myeloid leukemia (AML).     

The Morphology of Glucose 6 Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficient Erythrocytes: Electron-microscopic Studies

The conclusion that may be drawn is that though under normal conditionsthe survival time of enzyme deficient red blood cells is not too far from normal,the ageing of these cells from a morphological point of view occurs at a muchfaster rate; in other words, one could speak of "progeria" of the enzymedeficient red blood cells.

Accepted on November 20, 1960