title: Skin hyperreactivity of Behçet's patients (pathergy reaction) is also positive in interferon alpha-treated chronic myeloid leukaemia patients, indicating similarly altered neutrophil functions in both disorders.
abstract: Typical manifestations of Behcet's disease (BD) and a positive pathergy reaction were observed in a few patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) on interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) therapy and the significance of this observation was assessed in a prospective study. The skin pathergy test was applied to 15 patients with CML prior to IFN-alpha therapy, 29 patients with CML following IFN-alpha therapy and 30 patients with BD. Twenty-five patients with inflammatory arthropathies (IA), 20 patients with recurrent oral ulcers (ROU), 23 patients treated with IFN-alpha for various disorders and 20 normal individuals were also studied as control groups. The pathergy reaction was positive in nearly a quarter of IFN-alpha-treated CML cases (24%) as well as one-half of the patients with BD (50%). All CML patients prior to IFN-alpha treatment and all patients using IFN-alpha for other diseases were negative for the pathergy reaction. These results may indicate a similarly altered neutrophil function in both BD and IFN-alpha-treated CML patients.
authors.affiliation: TUBITAK, Department of Haematology, Marmara Medical School, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Budak-Alpdogan
authors.lastname: Demirçay
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Alpdogan
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Direskeneli
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ergun
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oztürk
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Günay
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yavuz
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uskent
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Akoğlu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004342:Drug Hypersensitivity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000502:physiology*; D019226:Oral Ulcer; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012867:Skin / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D016898:Interferon-alpha