Is a clinical consensus possible for the polycythaemic patients?
No conference of consensus was previously held in France, in the field of hematology. We decided to study the polycythemias, since it is a disease of relatively large frequency (about 1-2/100,000/year) relatively well defined, but in which initial evaluation, choice of treatment, quality or survey need really a consensus. Since the definition given in 1975 by the Polycythemia Vera Study Group (PVSG), some examinations became obsolete, and new ones (erythropoietin, stem cell culture) did appear, so that it seems useful to re-define the criteria of the disease. On another hand, the financial problems of our health systems make necessary do define what biological tests are really useful. As the vascular complications are the main risk of these patients, it would be useful to define what type of study is necessary for predicting the risk and also what preventive treatment could be advised. Such a study has presently never been done. Many questions still remain un-solved concerning the treatment. Beyond which age are the advantages of 32 P higher than the risk of leukemia? Is the chemotherapy by hydroxyurea or vercyte as easy to use than it is perhaps too often said? What is the best treatment, able to delay the development of myelofibrosis? The problem of survey is also, often, badly solved. What is the part of the specialist and that of the private physician?
Najean
Y
Y
Service de Médecine Nucléaire, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France.
D002908:Chronic Disease; D003245:Consensus Statements as Topic; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D011086:Polycythemia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D011087:Polycythemia Vera / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy