To investigate the clinical significance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of bone marrow in patients with acute leukemia, the femoral and pelvic marrow were evaluated by using MRI with a T₁-weighted spin-echo (SE) method and a short T₁ inversion recovery (STIR) technique. Normal bone marrow examination was performed with coronalT₁-weighted MRI of pelvis and femurs, and showed persistent red marrow. There was a bright signal of fatty marrow in the femoral epiphyses and apophyses. MRI pattern of bone marrow in the 54 cases of acute leukemia showed abnormal signal patterns of femoral and pelvic marrow: (1) grade I (n=4),(2) grade II (n = 11), (3) grade III (n = 8), (4) grade IV (n=17), and (5) graded V (n=14). Leukemic cells had infiltration onseted by red marrow in adult patients with leukemia. The marrow of femur had infiltration from diaphysis to epiphysis, and to femoral head and greater trochanter. The lower grades (grade IV, V) of leukemic marrow supported the diagnosis of AML in MRI, which achieved higher complete remission. The adult patients with ALL had higher grades (grade I–III) in MRI. Our findings indicated that MRI of femoral marrow is an important tool for accurate diagnosis and management of patients with leukemia that may function as an adjunct to bone marrow aspiration and biopsy. The pattern of MRI in patients with newly diagnosed leukemia predicted the prognosis and CR of leukemia.

Clinical characteristics of transmitted transfusion virus (TTV) infection and its pathogenicity in children were evaluated. Serum TTV DNA from 118 children (mean age: 7. 8±2. 8 years) was detected by nested PCR. The product of PCR was cloned and sequenced. The positive rate for serum TTV-DNA in 20 healthy children, 9 cases of acute hepatitis, 51 cases of chronic hepatitis, 24 cases of nephritis or nephrotic syndrome and 14 cases of hypoplastic anemia or acute leukemia was 20%, 11%, 29%, 42% and 21% respectively, but there was no significant difference in TTV-DNA frequency among them (P>0 05). Of the 16 patients receiving immunosuppressive agent for a long time, 7 (44%) were positive for TTV-DNA, and of the 17 cases not receiving immunosuppressive agent, 5 (29%) were positive with the difference being not significant (P>0. 05). Essential characteristics were pathogen-carrier or asymtomatic infection in children with TTV infection. Long-term employment of immunosuppressive agent did not increase the incidence in TTV infection. There was still high prevalence in TTV infection in healthy children not receiving blood product, suggesting the possibility of non hematogenous transmitted transfusion in TTV transmission.