[Blood lysozyme level and bone marrow granulocyte reserve]

The relation between granulocyte turnover, as shown by serum lysozyme values, and the marrow granulocyte reserve, evaluated by means of the hydrocortisone test, was determined in 20 patients with metastasised solid tumours or lymphomas undergoing cytostatic and/or radiation management. In addition to confirming the validity of this test as a means of assessing the behaviour of the marrow storage compartment, it pointed to a correlation between the hydrocortisone test and serum lysozyme. High enzyme values, in fact, insofar as they are an expression of accelerated granulocyte turnover may be seen as an indication of reduced marrow function, and thus offer a simple means of predicting reduction of the marrow granulocyte reserve, and hence a possible post-chemotherapeutic leukopenia, in some cases where peripheral leukopenia is not apparent.