Hematology all time.

In the previous two posts, we saw the history of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)  with regards to clinical features and laboratory findings. This post is about the progress been made in the treatment of CML over years. Year Drug 1865 German physician named Lissauer gave Fowler’s solution (1% solution of arsenic trioxide) to a woman with chronic leukemia in 1865. There was an obvious amelioration in her condition which lasted for some months.     Cutler and Bradford at Boston City Hospital, were the first to study scientifically the effects of arsenic on blood in health and disease.   1882 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used iron and quinine but not any improvements   1882 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle then used arsenic in large doses with the iodide and chlorate of potash which proved to be efficacious   1912 Benzene w...

This post is about the history of one of the most important diseases in hematology, earlier known as leucocythemia, now chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In the last post we saw the various timelines in 1800s. In this post we will see what happened in 1900’s in CML. Increased use of stained blood films and later with the introduction of peroxidase stain defined the characteristic profile of the differential count in CML. 1900- Myeloblast was indentified as the precursor stage of granulocyte series. Before the identification of myeloblasts, all cases of acute leukemia and blasts in leucocythemia also were considered as lymphoid as these blasts were agranular. 1917- Dr.Gordon Ward, medical officer in British army, collected 247 cases of CML from world literature and studied the age, sex distribution, survival times of the patients. Early 1920s- Basophilia and thrombocytosis were also recognized as specific for CML. 1920’s   and 1930’s-   There were lot of discussions...

This post is about the history of one of the most important diseases in hematology, earlier known as leucocythemia, now chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).   We will see each timeline in the history of CML in 1800s 1825- Velpeau described the case of a 63-year-old woman at autopsy who was found to have an enormous spleen and liver and whose blood was `thick, like gruel, one might have asked if it were not rather laudable pus than blood'. 1839- The   French microscopist Paul Donne  and   Bennett had seen the case of a 44 year old woman who died with gross splenic enlargement and whose blood seemed to be semipurulent; under the microscope, more than half the cells appeared to be `white globules'. 1844- This case was mentioned in a textbook on microscopy by Donne. 1841- Dr.David Craigie, a physician at the Royal Infirmary saw a patient admitted for fever, increasing weakness and abdominal swelling. He was puzzled by the unusual blood consistency and the splenic tumour...