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In 1938 Sezary and Bouvrain reported on a patient with a set of symptoms which later began to carry an eponymous designation “Sezary syndrome.” Ten years previously, Vojislav Arnovljević had described a patient with exactly the same set of symptoms, as well as physical, laboratory, autopsy, and histopathology findings. Unfortunately, his contribution remained unnoticed, not only by the international but Serbian audience as well. In 1928, in the Serbian Archives of Medicine, in Serbian, Vojislav Arnovljević published an article titled “The chronic lymphoid leukaemia with skin lymphomatosis,” in which he described a 43-year-old man with a two-year history of progressive development of a diffuse erythroderma with itching and hair loss over the entire torso, leukemia of 240,000/mm3, 91% of which lymphocytes and 5% eosinophils, who soon after admission developed a bronchopulmonary infection and died. The autopsy showed a pronounced lymphadenopathy in axillae, chest, and abdomen, enlarged liver and spleen with multiple infiltrates and thick skin. The histology confirmed a profound lymphocyte infiltration of axillar, mediastinal and abdominal lymph nodes, as well as liver, spleen and skin, while “the reaction of the other parts of the lymph and blood systems was relatively weak.” There is more than enough clinical, laboratory, autopsy and histological evidence to support that the patient Arnovljević described in 1928 had a syndrome that ten years later was described by Sezary and Bouvrain, which now bears the eponymous designation of Sezary syndrome.

Introduction. Therapeutic bloodletting has been practiced at least 3000 years as one of the most frequent methods of treatment in general, whose value was not questioned until the 19th century, when it was gradually abandoned in Western medicine, while it is still practiced in Arabic and traditional Chinese medicine. Content. In modern medicine bloodletting is practiced for very few indications. Its concept was modeled on the process of menstrual bleeding, for which it was believed to “purge women of bad humours.” Thus, bloodletting was based more on the belief that it helps in the reestablishment of proper balance of body “humours” than on the opinion that it serves to remove excessive amount of blood as well as to remove toxic “pneumas” that accumulate in human body. It was indicated for almost all known diseases, even in the presence of severe anemia. Bloodletting was carried out by scarification with cupping, by phlebotomies (venesections), rarely by arteriotomies, using specific instruments called lancets, as well as leeches. In different periods of history bloodletting was practiced by priests, doctors, barbers, and even by amateurs. In most cases, between one half of liter and two liters of blood used to be removed. Bloodletting was harmful to vast majority of patients and in some of them it is believed that it was either fatal or that it strongly contributed to such outcome. In the 20th century in the “Western” medicine bloodletting was still practiced in the treatment of hypertension and in severe cardiac insufficiency and pulmonary edema, but these indications were later abandoned. Conclusion. Bloodletting is still indicated for a few indications such as polycythemia, haemochromatosis, and porphyria cutanea tarda, while leeches are still used in plastic surgery, replantation and other reconstructive surgery, and very rarely for other specific indications.

Introduction. The management of pregnancy in young women with essential thrombocythemia is complex and may present a difficult problem. An adverse pregnancy outcome due to thrombosis or bleeding is a common complication. In addition, little is known about fertility in these women prior to the disease. Case Outline. We present the first case of a young woman with primary infertility and essential thrombocythemia who had uneventfully delivered a healthy boy in the fortieth week of pregnancy. Her platelet count was normalized during treatment with interferon-alfa.The patient failed to become pregnant in the natural way and after three attempts of programmed intercourse. She conceived only following intrauterine insemination. During pregnancy, the patient was carefully controlled by a hematologist and gynecologist. Conclusion. Natural course and prognosis of essential thrombocythemia is not adversely affected by pregnancy. In these women, the pregnancy should be planned only after normalization of platelet count. The interferon-alpha should be administered before the pregnancy to regulate and maintain the platelet count within the normal range. Intrauterine insemination with minimal hormonal stimulation due to the risk of thrombosis could be recommended as the safest treatment option of infertility in women with essential thrombocythemia.

Introduction. Accurate diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) acquires immunophenotyping by flow cytometry in order to facilitate differential diagnosis between CLL and other mature B-cell neoplasms (MBCN). Objective. The aim of this study was to define immunological profile of CLL cells. Methods. Immunophenotyping by flow cytometry was performed on peripheral blood specimens at diagnosis in the group of 211 patients with de novo MBCN. Results. Absolute count of B-cells was significantly increased in all MBCN patients comparing to healthy control group (p

Introduction. Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia is a disease with heterogeneous clinical course and outcome. Some patients have a progressive course of the disease and require therapy immediately after the diagnosis, while others have a stable form without the need for treatment. Recently, two new biological markers, the expression of CD38 antigen and ZAP-70 have shown independent significance in the prognosis in CLL patients. Objective. The aim of our study was to evaluate the clinical value of CD38 antigen and ZAP-70 expression as predictors of the disease progression and to analyze the correlation of these markers with other B-CLL prognostic markers. Methods. We assessed the expression of CD38 antigens by flow cytometry on peripheral blood samples and the expression of ZAP-70 by immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed bone marrow (BM) biopsies in 40 newly diagnosed B-CLL patients. Disease progression was defined by the period elapsed from diagnosis to the time to first treatment (TFT). Results. Expression of CD38 antigen correlated positively with ZAP-70 expression (Pearson, r=0.476; p=0.002). Also, correlation analysis results showed that a positive expression of CD38 and ZAP-70 statistically significantly correlated with unfavourable classical prognostic parameters, such as advanced Binet stage C, diffuse BM infiltration, increased lactate-dehydrogenase and beta-2 microglobulin serum levels. Patients with positive expression of CD38 antigen and ZAP-70 had a shorter TFT (log rank, 0.003 vs. 0.049). Conclusion. Both new biological markers were shown to have an exceptional significance in the prediction of prognosis in CLL patients.