[Acute basophilic leukemia: a case report].

A 56-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital in January, 1990 because of fever and petechiae. Leukocyte count of peripheral blood showed 41,000/microliters with 89% immature cells, and bone marrow was normocellular with 96.2% immature cells. They were medium to large in size, positive for peroxidase staining, CD-13 and CD-33. Half of them contained azurophilic granules. They showed metachromasia by toluidine blue, contained basophilic granules in electron microscopic examination and reacted to G-CSF, G-CSF and IL-3. She was diagnosed as acute basophilic leukemia and treated with BHAC-DMP and B triple-V regimen, but remission was not attained. She died of peritonitis due to gastrointestinal tract perforation and pneumonia in March, 1990. This is the fifteenth case of acute basophilic leukemia reported in Japan, and the hematological examinations performed in this patient were demonstrated.