title: Cytogenetic survey of 117 Tunisian patients with de novo myelodysplastic syndrome.
abstract: Cytogenetic studies were performed on 117 Tunisian patients with de novo myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). According to the French-American-British (FAB) criteria 40 patients presented with refractory anaemia (RA, 34%), eight with refractory anaemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARAS, 7%), 19 with refractory anaemia with excess of blasts (RAEB, 16%), 16 with refractory anaemia with excess of blasts in transformation (RAEB-t, 14%), 18 had chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia (CMML, 15%) and 16 unclassifiable MDS (14%). Seventy-five were men and forty-two were women. Five were children and 112 were adults with a median age of 58 years. Fifty-five per cent of the patients presented clonal chromosome abnormalities. Rates of abnormality varied from one FAB subtype to the other: 55% in RA, 75% in RARAS, 63% in RAEB, 75% in RAEB-t and 28% in CMML. The most frequent chromosome abnormalities were del(5q) (22 cases), monosomy 7 (12 cases), del(12p) (6 cases), and trisomy 8 (5 cases). Rare abnormalities were also found: ring of chromosome 12 and trisomy 15. Conventional cytogenetics remains the basic technique in identifying chromosomal abnormalities associated with MDS.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de cytogénétique et de biologie de la reproduction, CHU Farhat Hached, 4000, Sousse, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Halima Sennana
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Sendi
authors.forename: Haifa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hichri
authors.forename: Hatem
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Elghezal
authors.forename: Moez
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gribaa
authors.forename: Adnène
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laatiri
authors.forename: Moez
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elloumi
authors.forename: Raihane
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ben Lakhal
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saad
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007621:Karyotyping; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009190:Myelodysplastic Syndromes / Q000235:genetics*; D014416:Tunisia