Shlomit Orgad

Immunization by Paternal Leukocytes for Prevention of Primary Habitual Abortion: Results of a Matched Controlled Trial

Habitual abortion is a difficult clinical problem, as no cause can be found for abortion in over 50% of patients. At the habitual abortion clinic of the Sheba Medical Center, immunological activity is tested and patients who are considered suitable are offered immunopotentiation with paternal leukocytes. Patients are only treated if they have no other cause for habitual abortion, no lupus anticoagulant and no antipaternal complement-dependent antibodies (APCA). Immunization is thought to potentiate the maternal immune response to paternal antigens encountered on the trophoblast. The production of APCA antibody indicates that an immune response has occurred. Of the 156 patients so far immunized, 109 have developed these antibodies. To date, 79 of these 156 patients have become pregnant. Sixty-seven patients (with 3-12 miscarriages each) belong to the antibody-positive group. Sixty-four of the 89 subsequent pregnancies have been carried past their previous dates of abortion. Forty-seven live births have occurred. By contrast, 12 patients have been pregnant in the antibody-negative group, of the 16 subsequent pregnancies only 6 were successful. A control group is available for comparison. This consists of patients suitable for immunization, but not immunized. Of these patients, only 11 of 30 pregnancies have been carried to term.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia subtypes in israel: The sheba medical center experience☆

During the period from 1978 to 1981, 52 patients with ALL were diagnosed and treated at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center. Using standard cell markers to subtype the blasts, 49 of the patients could be classified: 16 were found to be T-cell ALL, 10 common ALL, five null ALL, four pre-B and 14 were partially characterized as non-B, non-T. Analysis of the series revealed two distinctive features: high prevalence (30%) of T-cell ALL among both Jews and Arabs and a high proportion, two-thirds, of high risk patients due to high initial WBC counts, unfavourable age or T-cell characteristics. The minimal incidence of ALL among the Gaza Strip Arab children during the study period is 4:100,000, which is close to the incidence in the Western world. During previous years the leukemia incidence in the Gaza Strip was very low while the most common lymphatic malignancies were Burkitt tumor and other non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

Phenotypic characterization of acute leukemia with monoclonal antibodies using the microlymphocytotoxicity assay

Surface antigens of lymphoblasts from 56 pediatric ALL patients were studied with a set of complement fixing monoclonal antibodies. This group of lymphoblasts was comprised of 22 T-cell ALL, 22 CALLA+ Ia+ ALL and 12 non-T-non-B, CALLA- Ia+ ALL. For comparison, two adult T-cell CLL and six B-cell CLL were also studied. It was found that by using the microlymphocytotoxicity technique, the lymphoblasts can be assigned their immunophenotype and thus be classified into their respective lineage and stage of differentiation. In the samples tested, concordant reactivity was observed when FACS fluorescence profile was compared with that of microlymphocytotoxicity suggesting that the latter can be used especially when qualitative estimates are required.

Poor Prognosis in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) Is Associated with HLA-A11

Acute childhood lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL) consists of several biologically distinct malignancies derived from different ancestral cells. A number of clinical and hematologic parameters are currently considered to be indicators of poor prognosis, i.e., male sex, high whiteblood cell counts, age below 2 or over 10 years, the presence of certain karyotypic abnormalities, and cell surface markers (1–3).