EXPERIMENTAL AGRANULOCYTOSIS

Abstract

Leukopenia accompanies numerous infectious and toxic conditions. However, the diminution in the number of the white corpuscles is oftentimes only transitory, and the drop in the leukocyte count, although it may have considerable prognostic significance, is not regarded as anything more than a symptomatic indication of a variety of disorders. Recently, however, a condition has been described in which the outstanding characteristic, persisting until death of the patient, is the disappearance from the circulating blood of the polymorphonuclear leukocytes (granulocytes), the erythropoietic and lymphopoietic systems being but slightly affected. The clinical picture of the disease, as described by various authors, resembles that of a severe infection with fever accompanied by necrotic changes in various mucous membranes, particularly those of the buccopharynx. The patients, in the majority of instances women, not uncommonly develop jaundice. The disease is fatal in about 90 per cent of the cases. Blood cultures during life or