Renal and hepatic enlargement in acute leukemia

Abstract

L patients with leukemia.8~0While usually ascribed to leukemia cell infiltration, there are many instances in which enlargement is out of proportion to that that can be accounted for by leukemic invasion.10Renal enlargement may also occur in patients with leukemia,**9 and here, also, it has been observed by Sternby? and in this laboratory that the enlargement is often not ascribable to leukemic cell invasion.This report deals with a study of these phenomena in 57 patients with acute leukemia.It was found at postmortem examination that renal and liver enlargement occur in approximately two thirds of the patients and that in one third of the patients this enlargement is not due to leukemic infiltration.I n addition, patients with liver enlargement not due to leukemic infiltration were much more likely to have renal enlargement in the absence of leukemic infiltration. MATERIALS AND METHODSDuring the %year period from December, 1953, to December, 1956, 57 patients with acute leukemia came to postmortem examination at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.The distribution of patients by age and type of disease is given in Table 1.Change in organ weight was calculated using the normal values as set forth in the Handbook of Biological Data.6The organ was considered enlarged when the weight was 50% greater than the average normal weight for normal subjects of the same age.