A case of multicentric secretory breast carcinoma in a 39-year-old white female is described. Mammograms, DNA analysis, touch preparation cytology, and positive estrogen receptors are reported for the first time in this rare favorable mammary carcinoma. A review of the 33 reported cases with follow-up in adult females, including the present case, has revealed lymph node metastases in nine (27%), recurrence in four (12%), and distant metastases leading to death in two cases (6%). In patients treated with less than simple mastectomy there has been local recurrence in 4 (33%) of 12 cases and in three of the four cases (75%) greater than or equal to 2.0 cm. Increased size and lack of gross circumscription of the neoplasm and presentation in the adult age group appear to identify cases with an increased risk of disease progression. In patients over 20 years old, especially with neoplasms greater than 2 cm in diameter, modified radical mastectomy has to date achieved the most favorable outcome. Minimal experience (two cases) is available regarding treatment with limited surgery and radiation therapy, and there is no available data regarding possible benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy.

Patients with X-linked lymphoproliferative (XLP) disease are characterized by extreme vulnerability to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Following infection with EBV, affected males develop fatal infectious mononucleosis (IM), hypogammaglobulinemia (H), or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). In addition, hyper IgM, red cell aplasia, necrotizing lymphoid vasculitis (NLV), and aplastic anemia occur rarely. The recent use of DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) probes in linkage with the XLP gene now permit detection of affected males prior to primary EBV infection. We have measured immunoglobulin class and subclass levels in sera from EBV-negative males who were either positive or negative for the XLP genotype by RFLP analysis. Elevated IgA or IgM and/or variable deficiency of IgG, IgG1, and IgG3 occurred in the sera of 13/13 RFLP-positive, EBV-negative males. No consistent abnormalities were noted in 14 RFLP-negative, EBV-negative males. We conclude that the immune defect in XLP is not solely EBV-specific, although EBV is responsible for most of the morbidity and all of the mortality. Further, serial measurement of Ig levels may provide information regarding status of EBV-negative males at risk where RFLP analysis is uninformative or in families where sporadic cases of fatal IM, acquired hypogammaglobulinemia or NHL have occurred, but wherein the genotype of XLP cannot be documented.

To provide a potentially therapeutic intervention and to collect clinical and laboratory data during an outbreak of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), 140 patients from the United States with suspected HPS were enrolled for investigational intravenous ribavirin treatment. HPS was subsequently laboratory confirmed in 30 persons and not confirmed in 105 persons with adequate specimens. Patients with HPS were significantly more likely than were hantavirus-negative patients to report myalgias from onset of symptoms through hospitalization, nausea at outpatient presentation, and diarrhea and nausea at the time of hospitalization; they were significantly less likely to report respiratory symptoms early in the illness. The groups did not differ with regard to time from the onset of illness to the point at which they sought care; time from onset, hospitalization, or enrollment to death was significantly shorter for patients with HPS. At the time of hospitalization, patients with HPS more commonly had myelocytes, metamyelocytes, or promyelocytes on a peripheral blood smear, and significantly more of them had thrombocytopenia, hemoconcentration, and hypocapnia. Patterns of clinical symptoms, the pace of clinical evolution, and specific clinical laboratory parameters discriminated between these 2 groups.