1981 Volume 22 Issue 9 Pages 1406-1411
Infections are the most dangerous complications in malignancies. We examined PMN leukocyte functions in ALL and other malignancies of children with regard to chemotaxis, phagocytosis, NBT test, deformability, adherence and intracellular killing activity. Chemotaxis, phagocytosis and adherence activity were decreased to about 50% of the control values. NBT test was within normal limit in all cases, deformability was suppressed moderately only in ALL and intracellular killing activity was also depressed.
Based on these findings, it was suspected strongly that impaired PMN leukocyte function was one of the most important causes of the undue susceptibility to infections of children in ALL and other malignancies.
