Bone marrow transplantation in patients with gold-induced marrow aplasia.

Aplastic anemia is a rare but usually fatal complication of gold salt therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. This report describes 3 patients who developed aplastic anemia while receiving gold salts, and a fourth patient who developed aplastic anemia after receiving gold and then cytotoxic agents. These patients failed to respond to conventional therapy for aplastic anemia and subsequently received bone marrow transplants from HLA-matched siblings. Engraftment occurred in all 4 patients. One patient is alive 2 years after transplantation, and 3 patients died of complications following transplantation.