[Blood histamine level in chronic myeloproliferative diseases; a review].

Since the discovery of a very high blood histamine level in chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) 1936, the author could ascertain that this parameter is very useful in the differential diagnosis between CML and various "leukemoid" reactions; in the early diagnosis of CML and in the differential diagnosis between CML and other myeloproliferative disorders. Recent researches proved that no correlation exists between blood histamine level and basophil count in the peripheral blood. Further investigations in this field have to clear up the questions whether it is possible by means of repeated controls of the blood histamine level to predict the development of a polycythemia vera into CML or to establish in a case of osteomyelosclerosis that this disease has been Preceeded by A CML.