[Eosinophilic leukaemia with chloroacetate-esterase-positive granules in a child (author's transl)]

Eosinophilic leukaemia was diagnosed in a 13-year-old boy with clinical and haematological signs of acute leukaemia. A positive naphthol-AS-D-chloroacetate esterase reaction was present in 93% of bone marrow eosinophils. This confirms earlier findings for this sub-group of leukaemia in adultsmcharcot-Leyden's crystals were found in bone marrow, and the eosinophils were further characterized by other cytochemical and electronmicroscopic studies. Only short remission periods were achieved, the patient dying 53 weeks after diagnosis. Attacks of cardiac arrhythmias, thought to be due to adriamycin treatment, were probably related to thrombi in the coronary arteries as a result of disseminated intravascular coagulation. It is thought that eosinophilic leukaemia with a positive naphthol-AS-D-chloroacetate esterase reaction is a variant of acute myeloid leukaemia.