Leukocythemia
| Classification according to ICD-10 | |
|---|---|
| D72.8 | Leukocythemia |
| C95.9 | leukemia |
| ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019) | |
The term leukocytemia (from ancient Greek λετκός leukós , German 'white' ; κύτος kýtos , German 'cavity, vessel, shell' and αἷμα haima , German 'blood' ) is a historical name that was used in 1845 by the pathologist John Hughes Bennett (1812-1875 ) was introduced from Edinburgh for a clinical picture which today is known as leukemia according to a suggestion by Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) . At that time a real scholarly dispute broke out between the two contemporary pathologists over the authorship and description of the disease in question.
While Bennett attributed the many "colorless corpuscles" to suppuration, i.e. pus formation in the blood (also called pyaemia ), Virchow was of the opinion that there was an increase in "colorless blood corpuscles" (now called leukocytes ) and looked for their origin in the lymph glands . Although Bennett was the first to write of the "discovery of a new abnormal state of blood," Virchow's name for the disease prevailed. Virchow's pathophysiological considerations on leukemia have been confirmed over time.
For more detailed information on the disease, see the article Leukemia .
