MLL Cleavage Occurs in Approximately 5% of De Novo Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Including in Patients Analyzed Before Treatment Induction

Institute of Medical Microbiology and Immunology mia during follow-up between 5 months and 4 years. The other 60 patients remained negative in GBV-C PCR. Department of General Surgery One important route of GBV-C transmission is blood products (blood Department of Internal Medicine plasma and erythrocyte and thrombocyte concentrates). Therefore, we Department of Transfusion Medicine examined the number of blood products administered to these patients Universitätskrankenhaus Eppendorf in connection with liver transplantation. We did not find a significant Hamburg, Germany difference between the number of blood products administered to the 42 patients who acquired GBV-C infection perioperatively (median, 142 U) and the 60 patients without GBV-C infection (median, 137.5 U). REFERENCES From our results we conclude that GBV-C infection is not linked 1. Simons JN, Leary TP, Dawson GJ, Pilot-Matias TJ, Dawson to fulminant hepatitis. Our data further show that patients who unGJ, Erker JC Chalmers ML, Schlauder GG, Desai SM, Mushawar dergo liver transplantation are at high risk for acquiring GBV-C IK: Isolation of novel virus-like sequences associated with human infection. The prevalence after transplantation was 41.2%, in contrast hepatitis. Nat Med 1:564, 1995 to 6.4% before transplantation. Transfusion-transmitted GBV-C in2. Yoshiba M, Okamoto H, Mishiro S: Detection of the GBV-C fection has to be assumed due to the great number (median, 140 U) hepatitis virus genome in serum from patients with fulminant hepatirequired for liver transplantation. This is in agreement with pretis of unknown aetiology. Lancet 346:1131, 1995 viously published data in patients with hematologic malignancy. 3. Kao JH, Chen PJ, Chen DS: GBV-C in the aetiology of fulmiClinical studies are already in progress to evaluate the clinical impact nant hepatitis. Lancet 347:120, 1996 of GBV-C infection in liver transplant recipients. 4. Wang JT, Tsai FC, Lee CZ, Chen PJ, Sheu JC, Wang TH, Chen DS: A prospective study of transfusion-transmitted GB virus Heinz-Hubert Feucht C infection: Similar frequency but different clinical presentation Lutz Fischer compared with hepatitis C virus. Blood 88:1881, 1996 Martina Sterneck 5. Neilson J, Harrison P, Milligan DW, Skidmore SJ, Collingham Bärbel Knödler KE: Hepatitis G virus long-term survivors of haematological maligChristoph-E. Broelsch nancy. Lancet 347:1632, 1996 Rainer Laufs