No abstract

ABSTRACT. In a prospective trial, 42 medical patients with a history of deep vein thrombosis of less than five days were allocated at random to treatment with streptokinase or heparin. Only patients with extensive thromboses were included. Streptokinase was given in a loading dose of 250000 IU and a maintenance dose of 100000 IU/hour for 4 days as a mean. Heparin was given in a loading dose of 15 000 IU and a maintenance dose of 20000–50000 IU/day. The therapeutic results were evaluated by phlebography. Significant thrombolysis occurred in 71.4% of 21 patients treated with streptokinase and in 23.8% of the 21 heparin‐treated patients. Using the X2‐test for overall association, this difference was statistically highly significant (p=0.002). Three patients in each treatment group experienced major bleeding, two in each group requiring blood transfusions. Minor bleeding and slight rise in temperature were encountered more often in the streptokinase than in the heparin group. It is concluded that patients with acute deep vein thrombosis with proximal extension of the thrombus beyond the calf veins should be offered a therapeutic trial with streptokinase.

No abstract

Summary:Many centers use CY and G-CSF to mobilize PBPC. In this study we explored whether a standard chemotherapy regimen consisting of mitoguazon, ifosfamide, MTX and etoposide (MIME) combined with G-CSF was capable of mobilizing PBPC in lymphoma patients. Twelve patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) and 38 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) were mobilized with MIME/G-CSF. Most patients were heavily treated with different chemotherapy regimens receiving a median of 11 cycles (range 3 to 20) of chemotherapy prior to mobilization. It was found that the optimal time of PBPC harvest was at days 12 and 13 after initiating the mobilization regimen. The median number of collected CD34؉ cells per kg body weight was 7.1 ؋ 10 6 (range 0.5-26.2). More than 2.0 × 10 6 CD34 ؉ cells/kg were achieved in 69% of the patients after one apheresis. When additional cycles of apheresis were done, only 6% failed to harvest this number of CD34 ؉ cells. There was a statistically significant inverse correlation between the number of prior chemotherapy cycles and CD34 ؉ cell yield (P ‫؍‬ 0. 003). No such association was found between CD34؉ cell yield and prior radiotherapy. When MIME/G-CSF was compared with Dexa-BEAM/G-CSF, it was found that MIME/G-CSF tended to be more efficient in mobilizing PBPC in spite of being less myelotoxic. All patients transplanted with MIME/G-CSF mobilized PBPC had fast and sustained engraftment. These results demonstrate that an ordinary salvage chemotherapy regimen, such as MIME combined with G-CSF can be successfully used to mobilize PBPC. Keywords: PBPC mobilization; CD34 + cells; combination chemotherapy; MIME; G-CSF; malignant lymphoma High-dose therapy (HDT) with autologous stem cell support is increasingly used to treat selected patients with malignant lymphomas. Several studies have shown that the Correspondence: Dr G Kvalheim, Clin Stem Cell Laboratory, University Hospital, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Montebello, 0310 Oslo, Norway Received 27 September 1997; accepted 4 December 1997 use of PBPC grafts gives a faster reconstitution of neutrophils and platelets compared to BMT.

No abstract