Myelodysplastic syndrome in two young brothers.
We report the youngest cases of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in two brothers aged 7 and 2 years. The maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother had been exposed to radioactive fallout after the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima in 1945. The elder brother demonstrated pancytopenia with < 1% blast cells in his peripheral blood and < 5% in his bone marrow at diagnosis. The younger brother was thrombocytopenic without increased blasts. The karyotype of bone marrow cells from the elder brother was 46,XY, -7, +der (7), t(1:7) (lqter-lq11::7q11-7pter), but the younger brother's karyotype was normal. Immature myeloid cells in the bone marrow from both brothers were morphologically abnormal. A diagnosis of refractory anaemia (RA) was made in both brothers. Atavism due to radioactive poisoning was suspected in the development of MDS in these two cases.
Hirose
M
M
Department of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Tokushima, Japan.
Kawahito
M
M
Kuroda
Y
Y
D000753:Anemia, Refractory / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002878:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 1; D002897:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 7; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006801:Humans; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D007953:Leukemia, Radiation-Induced / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000235:genetics*; D011847:Radioactive Fallout / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014178:Translocation, Genetic
D011847:Radioactive Fallout