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Describes a male Greek who developed acute lymphoblastic leukemia type L2 after a 12-year period of quiescent ulcerative colitis. Medical profile of the patient; Treatments given to the man; Importance of determining the duration of ulcerative colitis prior to the development of acute leukemia.

The effect of endogenous and exogenously administered oestrogens, androgens and progesterone on plasma and urinary uric acid and uric acid clearance was studied in a total of 65 healthy volunteers, including normal menstruating and post-menopausal women, girls with primary amenorrhoea and adult male subjects. A serial study throughout a full cycle in 3 women showed an inverse relationship between plasma uric and synthetic oestrogens produced a fall in plasma uric acid concentration through a uricosuric effect in most subjects of both sexes. Testosterone propionate caused a definite increase in plasma uric acid levels in post-menopausal women while endogenous testosterone changes due to Leydig cell stimulation produced no definite effect in male subjects. Administration of a progesterone preparation produced an effect similar to that of oestrogens in post-menopausal women. The evidence presented here supports ithe view that sex steroids play a significant part in uric acid regulation in biological fluids of both sexes.

Granulocyte-committed progenitor cells (colony-forming units, CFUc) in the blood of 10 patients with primary myelosclerosis and 2 patients with myelosclerosis following polycythaemia vera were assayed by the agar culture technique. The mean number of CFUc was 54.1 +/- 109 (SD) (range 1.4--394) x 10(6)/1 which corresponded to an increase of more than 1000-fold above normal levels. There was a linear relationship of CFUc with total leucocyte count in the different patients. The magnitude of this increase resembles that found in untreated patients with chronic granulocytic leukaemia and is therefore in keeping with the concept that the concentration of CFUc in the circulation is due to a primary increase in their number and not to disordered release from the marrow.