STERNAL MARROW ASPIRATED DURING LIFE

Abstract

Although the importance of studies of the bone marrow in hematologic disorders is well known, few examinations of the bone marrow have been made during life. Simultaneous examinations of the peripheral blood and the bone marrow have been made feasible by Arinkin's1simple method of obtaining bone marrow by sternal puncture. Using a similar technic, we have studied the marrow of twenty-eight healthy men and twenty-six patients. Ghedini2was apparently the first to describe a technic for taking a specimen of bone marrow for biopsy. His method of trephining the tibia was little used. Seyfarth3also used a method of trephining, but suggested that the sternum was more suitable for routine studies than the tibia. Peabody4studied the bone marrow in pernicious anemia, using Ghedini's technic for the removal of marrow. His work has done much to establish the procedure as a diagnostic aid and as