In vitro bone marrow cell culture and cytogenetic analysis in a case of myelodysplasia.

A case of refractory anemia with sideroblastosis and a number of bone-marrow blasts slightly over the limit which separates the I/II and III FAB-subtypes of myelodysplastic syndromes is described. The leukemic-like type of in vitro growth and the multiple karyotypic changes observed in the bone-marrow cells at presentation were both indicators of the malignant nature of the disorder and underlined the importance of these studies in assessing diagnosis and prognosis in patients with preleukemic disorders. The role that the chromosome aberrations, del(11)(q14) and del(18)(q21), both found in 100% of the bone-marrow metaphases examined, may play in the pathogenesis of the disease is also discussed.