title: Terminal transferase in acute lymphoblast leukemia in remission.
abstract: Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) is a marker for the diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. To determine its value as an indicator of bone marrow remission or impending relapse, serial remission marrows (less than 5% blasts) from 49 patients who had acute lymphoblastic leukemia were examined for TdT by immunofluorescence over the period of a year. Thirty-eight patients (78%) had less than 1% TdT-positive cells. Eleven patients (22%) had slightly elevated levels of TdT (2%-7%) at some time during the study. of these eleven, only two had relapses; however, neither patient had greater than 1% TdT-positive cells within the three months before the relapse. Therefore, it appears that the presence of slightly increased numbers of TdT-positive cells in acute lymphoblastic leukemia remission bone marrows (2%-7%) does not denote impending relapse. In addition, most of the patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in remission had less than 1% TdT-positive cells.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000201:enzymology; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells; D001856:Bone Marrow Examination; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004253:DNA Nucleotidylexotransferase / Q000032:analysis*; D004254:DNA Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000032:analysis*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D007945:Leukemia, Lymphoid / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000201:enzymology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous
chemical_list: D004254:DNA Nucleotidyltransferases; D004253:DNA Nucleotidylexotransferase