ANALYSIS OF BONE-MARROW FROM PATIENTS WITH ACUTE-LEUKEMIA BY HIGH-RESOLUTION PYROLYSIS-GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY

The mononuclear cells and plasma in bone marrow from 30 subjects with leukemia, 12 subjects with hematological disease, four subjects with m ultiple myeloma, one subject with malignant histiocytosis and 18 norma l subjects were analyzed by high-resolution Py-CC(HR Py-GC). In the pr esent study, the samples were pyrolyzed using CDS 122 pyroprobe at 770 degrees C, coupled on-line to a model HP 5890A gas chromatograph with a fused silica capillary column coated with PEG 20M. The results show ed that the pyrograms of the leukemia cases were significantly differe nt from those of the other hematological diseases and normal subjects. A characteristic peak with the same retention time in the pyrograms o f the leukemia, multiple myeloma and malignant histiocytosis samples w as found. In contrast, this characteristic peak did not appear in the pyrograms of other hematological diseases and normal subjects. The pyr ograms of the different subtypes of leukemia were also different. Vari ation in the pyrograms of six cases of mononuclear cells and plasma fr om different stages of treatment were closely related to changes in th e effectiveness of the treatment. All pyrograms of the plasma from the leukemia, other hematological diseases and normal controls showed sim ilar results to those of the mononuclear cells. Therefore, 36 clinical samples of the different subtypes of acute leukemia were identified b y the method, 35 cases were diagnosed (97.2%). The technique appears t o provide a simplified and reproducible method as a rapid diagnostic t ool and dynamic observation of acute leukemia.