BritirhJournuI ofHdematoZogy, 1978, 39, 241.
Serum Uracil Levels in Acute Childhood Leukaemia T. E. PARRY
Department of Haematology, Llandough Hospital, South Glamorgan Area Health Authority (Teaching) (Received 2 3 J d y 1977; accepted for publication 21 October 1977)
SUMMARY. Serum ‘uracil+uridine’ expressed as uracil has been measured in 47 consecutive cases of acute leukaemia in children a t the time of diagnosis, before treatment, and also both before and after therapy in a girl of 12 with Ph’ positive chronic myeloid leukaemia in blastic transformation, and in an adult male age 3 I with acute undifferentiated leukaemia. The results were compared with 97 previously reported normal subjects. The skew distribution of results in acute leukaemia rendered the mean value and standard deviation meaningless but the range was considerably wider than in the normal controls (range 7.2-77. I pmol/l. in acute leukaemia; mean 15.7 pmolll., range 5.7-40.5 pmol/l., SD 5.26 in controls). In 10 ( 2 1 %) of the patients with acute leukaemia the level was more than 3 SDs and in five more than 8 SDs above the normal mean. There was a high degree of correlation and between uracil concentration and total white cell count (r=o.7894, P
Serum Uracil Levels in Acute Childhood Leukaemia T. E. PARRY
Department of Haematology, Llandough Hospital, South Glamorgan Area Health Authority (Teaching) (Received 2 3 J d y 1977; accepted for publication 21 October 1977)
SUMMARY. Serum ‘uracil+uridine’ expressed as uracil has been measured in 47 consecutive cases of acute leukaemia in children a t the time of diagnosis, before treatment, and also both before and after therapy in a girl of 12 with Ph’ positive chronic myeloid leukaemia in blastic transformation, and in an adult male age 3 I with acute undifferentiated leukaemia. The results were compared with 97 previously reported normal subjects. The skew distribution of results in acute leukaemia rendered the mean value and standard deviation meaningless but the range was considerably wider than in the normal controls (range 7.2-77. I pmol/l. in acute leukaemia; mean 15.7 pmolll., range 5.7-40.5 pmol/l., SD 5.26 in controls). In 10 ( 2 1 %) of the patients with acute leukaemia the level was more than 3 SDs and in five more than 8 SDs above the normal mean. There was a high degree of correlation and between uracil concentration and total white cell count (r=o.7894, P
