Acute Agranulocytosis Following Sulfadiazine

Toxic symptoms following the use of sulfadiazine in comparison with those following the other sulfonamides are mild and infrequent. A decrease in the leukocyte count below 5,000 per cubic millimeter of blood with or without a decrease in the granulocytes occurs not uncommonly during the course of sulfanilamide and less often during sulfapyridine and sulfathiazole therapy. 1 Leukopenia following sulfadiazine administration has been observed. In a total of 776 cases 2 the incidence was 1.67 per cent. Keefer 1 reports an incidence of 2 per cent. Acute agranulocytosis occurring after sulfadiazine therapy has not been reported. For this reason it was felt that the following case should be recorded. REPORT OF CASE A white woman aged 41, married, entered the medical wards of the Boston City Hospital on Sept. 24, 1941 because of [ill]aundice of five days' duration. The present illness began about two weeks previously with an episode of