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.
Department of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Tokushima, Japan.
M
M
Hirose
M
M
Kawahito
Y
Y
Kuroda
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