Transient myeloproliferative disorder of the Down type in the normal newborn
D. Ridgway, G. I. Benda, E. Magenis, L. Allen, G. M. Segal, R. M. Braziel and R. C. Neerhout
Department of Pediatrics, Doernbecher Memorial Hospital for Children, Portland, Ore.
Two infants with congenital nonlymphoblastic leukemia were discovered to
have mosaicism for trisomy 21. Both infants achieved durable spontaneous
remissions. Trisomy was apparently restricted to the leukemic clone and
could be detected in neither phytohemagglutinin-stimulated peripheral blood
cells or bone marrow in either patient nor in myeloid progenitor cells from
the second patient after resolution of the transient myeloproliferative
disorder. We conclude that spontaneous remission of congenital leukemia is
not confined to infants with partial or complete systemic trisomy 21 but
can occur in genetically normal newborns whose leukemic cells contain a
third chromosome 21.
