Significance of biochemical markers in Morbus Hodgkin

Statistically significant changes of the values of biochemical tests can be utilized in complex clinical and laboratory diagnosis and in appreciating the status of the disease in Hodgkin's lymphomas. Considering the increasing number of biochemical tests and their common nonspecificity, urgent necessity appears to verify their importance in malignant diseases. The authors analyzed 2626 biochemical examinations in 39 patients with M. Hodgkin. The results were evaluated in untreated patients, in patients in remission with and without BCG vaccination, in relapse, in the course of successful and unsuccessful therapy and the contribution of individual laboratory tests for the diagnosis and the course of the disease was verified. Suitable for the diagnosis are those tests which do not deviate from physiological limits in the sense either of the increase (alpha 2-, beta-, gamma-globulins and transaminases) or the decrease (albumins and albumin-globulin quotient). Statistically insignificant were the changes of the values of total protein, alpha1-globulins, N-urea, thymol turbidity reaction, cholesterol, phosphatases and lactate dehydrogenase. The results presented can be an aid for the clinician in the choice of individual biochemical markers.