The occurrence of a sudden outbreak of agranulocytosis in Finland among patients being treated with clozapine led to intensive investigations in an attempt to find a local precipitating factor. Granulocytopenia after clozapine was found to have the same characteristics as that reported after phenothiazines. No local factor, either genetic or environmental, was found which could have been responsible for the increased frequency of occurrence in Finland. The need to be aware of the risk and to take appropriate precautionary measures (e.g. weekly leucocyte counts in the first months) is emphasized.

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We show here that the leukemic blast cells from three patients of a total of 15 subsequently diagnosed as having acute leukemia express on their surface the major red cell sialoglycoprotein, glycophorin A (GP-A). This was demonstrated (1) by indirect immunofluorescence using rabbit anti GP-A anti-serum and (2) by immune precipitation of GP-A from surface radiolabelled leukemic cells. Since GP-A is exclusively present on erythroid cells and their precursors, these findings indicate that a higher proportion of the blast leukemias than previously recognized show features of early erythroid differentiation.