A young woman in maintenance therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia
in second complete remission developed fever and a skin rash associate
d with severe anemia, neutropenia and erythroblastopenia A complete re
covery was obtained in 4 weeks' time after red cell transfusion i.v. i
mmunoglobulin and withdrawal of the maintenance chemotherapy. Parvovir
us B19 infection was demonstrated by detection of B19 DNA in the patie
nt's serum using a dot-blot hybridization assay and a nested polymeras
e chain reaction. Serological tests were positive for anti-B19 IgG but
not for IgM. Erythroblastopenia due to parvovirus infection has alrea
dy been reported in ALL patients. B19 infection should be suspected in
leukemic patients if unexplained cytopenia (mainly anemia) follows an
acute febrile illness. Very sensitive methods are often needed to con
firm the diagnosis, since routine serological tests may be unreliable
in immunocompromised patients.