THE RESPONSE TO INITIAL TREATMENT AS A FA VORABLE PROGNOSIS FACTOR INLANGERHANS CELL POLYSYSTEMIC HISTIOCYTOSIS IN CHILDREN

Prognostic significance of various clinical and laboratory factors has been assessed in 88 patients with Langerhans polysystemic histiocytos is (PSH). A statistically significant relationship was found between t he number of the affected systems, liver dysfunction and the disease o utcome. However, these factors did not allow prognosis in each individ ual case. Valid prognosis was feasible in estimation of the response t o initial treatment: in failure of the initial treatment the lethal ou tcome occurred in 90% of cases. Thus, the response to initial treatmen t may be used as an independent and highly informative prognostic fact or valuable in therapy prognosis and correction in PSH patients at ear ly stages of the treatment.