Treatment of aplastic anemia with immunosuppressive agents.

184 cases of aplastic anemia were treated by various immunosuppressive agents. 25.1% of the 35 patients with moderately severe aplastic anemia showed a hematological response to bolus methylprednisolone m PSL treatment. 9.6% of 73, 16.9% of 65 and 42.9% of 14 cases with severe aplastic anemia responded to m PSL, anti-lymphocyte globulin and anti-thymocyte globulin treatment, respectively. There was no difference in the survival of these severe aplastic anemia patients, however, which were prolonged invariably by treatment with each of these immunosuppressive agents. No correlation was observed between the in vitro increase of hematopoietic cell colony growth of the patient's bone marrow and clinical response to the immunosuppressive agents.