LEUKEMIC SINUS RETICULOSIS (MONOCYTIC LEUKEMIA) WITH INTESTINAL OBSTRUCTION

Abstract

Thirty years ago acute leukemia was regarded as a disease of but one type—lymphatic leukemia. Gradually myelogenous acute leukemia came to be recognized, which seems to occur far more frequently than the lymphatic variety. Today room is being made for a third claimant —monocytic leukemia. Full acceptance of monocytic leukemia as a clinical and pathologic entity will depend ultimately on indisputable proof of the derivation of the circulating monocytes. Such proof will involve the recognition of a third hematopoietic system, the occasional hyperplasia of which may logically be expected to result in leukemia comparable to myeloid and lymphoid leukemia. Unfortunately, the ancestry of cells, like the ancestry of human beings, is often easy and pleasing to claim but hard to verify. The studies of Maximow,¹of Kiyono²and of Sabin³have convinced most investigators that circulating monocytes are derived from some part of the reticulo-endothelial system. Exactly