t, according to a new study by researchers at Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. The new study supports the long-held belief that rates of aplastic anemia are far greater in Asia than in Western countries. An incidence and case-controlled study, partly supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, enrolled 541 patients and 2261 controls in Bangkok and Khonkaen. Some chemicals and drugs, especially exposure to benzene, sulfonamides, thiazides and mebendazole, were associated with aplastic anemia but their use could not account for the greater number of cases. In the countryside, the use of agricultural pesticides, including DDT, organophosphates and carbamates, was a risk factor; other unexpected risk factors were exposure to ducks and geese drinking other than bottled or distilled water--suggestive of an infectious cause for bone marrow failure.
Aplastic Anemia in the Orient
Surapol Issaragrisil, M.D., Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Wednesday, Oct. 19, 10:30 AM

Genetic Risk Factors Identified For Aplastic Anemia
Researchers at NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute have identified genetic risk factors for acquired aplastic anemia that affect both the immune response and hematopoietic cell number and function. The class II histocompatability antigen HLA-DR2 is more prevalent in Asian and Western patients and may correlate with responsiveness to immunosuppressive therapies. Alterations in certain cytokine genes were found to be more prevalent among bone marrow failure patients. More recently, genetic studies have been performed of families of patients who had apparently acquired aplastic anemia as adults and lacked the physical abnormalities or a family history typical of inherited forms of bone marrow failure. Multiple pedigrees were defined in whom patients and relatives had mutations in genes called TERC and TERT. These genes are of critical impor
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Contact: Brian Ruberry
br@allhealthpr.com
240-506-6323
Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation
17-Oct-2005

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