title: All-transretinoic acid (ATRA) treatment-related pancarditis and severe pulmonary edema in a child with acute promyelocytic leukemia.
abstract: Use of all-transretinoic acid (ATRA) with other chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) has been shown to cause the differentiation of abnormally granulated specific blast cells into mature granulocytes by acting on the t(15; 17) fusion gene product. The complete remission rate is increased and survival time is prolonged in APL patients who receive chemotherapy plus ATRA, whereas ATRA syndrome and other ATRA-related adverse effects including pseudo tumor cerebri, headache, severe bone pain, mucosal and skin dryness, hypercholesterolemia, and cheilitis may be observed especially during induction phase of the treatment. In this paper, we report a 9-year-old girl with APL who developed pancarditis while receiving the APL-93 treatment protocol. In our patient, endocarditis and myocarditis were initially determined after ATRA treatment during the induction part of the protocol. All findings disappeared after ATRA was discontinued. When ATRA was readministered in the maintenance part of the treatment protocol, she developed pancarditis and severe pulmonary edema. As her symptoms decreased dramatically with the discontinuation of ATRA and the initiation of steroid treatment, the clinical picture strongly suggested the ATRA treatment as the causative factor. To the best of our knowledge, this clinical picture of pancarditis secondary to ATRA treatment has not been reported earlier in the English literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Hematology, Diskapi Children's Education and Training Hospital, Diskapi-Ankara/Turkey.
authors.forename: Pamir
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Işık
authors.forename: Ilker
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Çetin
authors.forename: Betul
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tavil
authors.forename: Fatih
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Azik
authors.forename: Abdurrahman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kara
authors.forename: Nese
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yarali
authors.forename: Bahattin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tunc
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015473:Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute / Q000188:drug therapy*; D009205:Myocarditis / Q000139:chemically induced*; D011654:Pulmonary Edema / Q000139:chemically induced*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014212:Tretinoin / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D014212:Tretinoin