title: [Von Willebrand factor in acute leukemia].
abstract: Using Laurell's rocket and crossed immunoelectrophoresis, we studied the function of vWF on the basis of its quantity and quality. The ristocetin-induced platelet aggregation was also investigated. The results revealed that the level of plasma vWF:Ag in acute leukemia (88.53 +/- 46.33%) was significantly higher than that in normal controls (90.53 +/- 29.54%) (P less than 0.01) and markedly decreased as these cases were in partial or complete remission (105.29 +/- 26.65%) (P less than 0.01), but there were no significant differences between the cases with (204.76 +/- 68.17%) and those without bleeding tendency (174.77 +/- 65.78%), nor between ALL (185.22 +/- 62.19%) and ANLL (192.43 +/- 77.97%) (P greater than 0.05). Compared with normal controls, crossed immunoelectrophoresis of plasma vWF in 21 cases showed a rapid migration of the precipitin arcs toward the positive pole in 16 cases. This indicates that there is a relatively increased amount of small multimers in the plasma, which do not have the active function of vWF so that the ristocetin-induced aggregation was reduced or even absent in those 21 cases (the maximum aggregation rate was 62.89 +/- 34.02% in the patients and 104.69 +/- 12.13% in normal controls (P less than 0.01). The possible mechanism and clinical significance of these changes are discussed.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000941:Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010974:Platelet Aggregation; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000276:immunology*; D014841:von Willebrand Factor / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; C029417:Von Willebrand antigen; D014841:von Willebrand Factor