[Pathomorphology of the lymph nodes and the genesis of myeloid infiltrates in them in acute granulocyte-type leukemia].

Five hundred lymph nodes taken from various parts of the body in 89 patients who had died of acute granulocytic leukemia at the age of 3 to 71 years were examined. The degree of involvement of lymph nodes of the same patient was different and depended of their site: more frequent and pronounced changes were found in submaxillary, cervical, and retroperitoneal lymph nodes, less marked in inguinal and mesenterial nodes. The earliest infiltrates of oxidase-positive cells appeared in hilus fat around small arteries, then in the medullary part and, finally, in the cortex. In sinuses, the oxidase-positive cells accumulated later than in the medullary part, were more mature and sometimes were phagocytized by histocytes. A direct correlation between the degree of myeloid infiltration in the lymph nodes and the number of leukocytes in the peripheral blood was observed. These results and data of the literature suggest a metastatic genesis of myeloid infiltrates.