[Clinical significance of aldolase A in sera of patients with leukemia].

Serum aldolase A (ALD-A) levels were determined in patients with leukemia using a radioimmunoassay method. The method is a double antibody radioimmunoassay consisting of purified ALD-A as ligand, chicken antisera to ALD-A and rabbit antibodies to chicken IgG. Serum ALD-A levels of 41 normal healthy subjects ranged from 130 to 210 ng/ml (mean +/- 2 SD; 171 +/- 39 ng/ml). Serum ALD-A levels ranged from 90 to 200 ng/ml in patients with 42 non-neoplastic hematological diseases with the exception of hemolytic anemia. In contrast, 61 patients with acute leukemia before treatment exhibited increased serum ALD-A levels ranging from 125 to 1,550 ng/ml, with a mean value of 480 ng/ml. Serum ALD-A levels in 24 patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) during the chronic phase also exhibited high mean values of 481 ng/ml in a range of 270 to 1,100 ng/ml. Serum ALD-A levels were higher than 210 ng/ml in 85.2% of the patients with acute leukemia and in all patients with CML. Serum ALD-A levels tended to be decreased within the normal range, if those patients could achieve complete remission. In contrast, serum ALD-A levels showed a tendency to increase if those patients experienced a relapse of leukemia. These results suggest that the measurement of serum ALD-A levels by radioimmunoassay is useful for diagnosis and prediction of relapse in patients with leukemia.