Chromosomal abnormalities. Findings in a patient with lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis treated with intra-articular gold Au 198.

Cytogenetic studies from the peripheral blood of a patient with malignant lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis who was treated with intra-articular gold Au 198 revealed mosaicism with a normal female metaphase and a 43-chromosome metaphase. The abnormal cell line showed six missing normal chromosomes and three morphologically abnormal chromosomes. The trypsin-digested G-banding metaphases showed that the marker chromosomes were an isochromosome of the long arm of chromosome 17, a translocated chromosome that involved the long arm of chromosome 4 and a chromosome 16, and a translocated chromosome that involved the long arm of chromosome 4 and a chromosome 5. It is tempting to conclude that these abnormalities were due to the gold Au 198 treatment, but we cannot exclude other possibilities.