BLOOD HISTAMINE LEVELS AS A POSSIBLE CLINICOPHARMACOLOGICAL CRITERION IN CERTAIN BLOOD DISEASES

Abstract

The possible significance of blood histamine levels for diagnosing and treatment evaluation in patients with blood disorders such as malignant lymphomas - Hodgkin's disease (HD) and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL), and Schonlein-Henoch purpura (SHP) was studied. Histamine was established spectrofluorimetrically in the active phase of the disease as well as during remission after treatment. Blood levels of histamine were significantly decreased about 2,5-fold in patients with HD in the active phase as compared to healthy controls (0,030 ± 0,002 μg/ml versus 0,073 ± 0,002 μg/ml) and by 31,5 % in patients with active SHP (0,050 ± 0,004 pig/ml versus 0,073 ± 0,002 μg/ml). After treatment and during remission the histamine levels recovered to normal. Such a correlation between blood levels of histamine, on the one hand, and process activity and treatment efficiency, on the other, was not observed for NHL. These results indicated that blood levels of histamine could serve as an additional criterion for the process activity evaluation and for the therapeutic effectiveness in patients with HD or SHP but not NHL. Furthermore, blood histamine levels might be considered as a possible clinicopharmacological criterion for the evaluation of new drugs anticipated for the treatment of HD or SHP.