[Prognostic usefulness of lysozyme in acute myelomonocytic leukemias]

Pre-treatment sera and urines from 17 patients with acute myelomonocytic leukemia (M-4 type) have been assayed for their lysozyme content. In addition periodical evaluations of the serum and urinary lysozyme levels have been performed during the clinical course of 10 patients. There was no correlation between initial lysozyme activity in the serum and response to chemotherapy, while periodical estimations of serum lysozyme activity, in the same patient, provide clinically significant prognostic information. Urinary lysozyme levels are closely related to serum lysozyme levels; therefore the urinary estimations of this enzyme activity provide no different prognostic evaluations than serum estimations.