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1 INTRODUCTION
Haematology, the science of the blood and its diseases, was a purely clinical domain for a long time, because diseases of the blood could usually be diag- nosed on blood or bone marrow smears. Haematopathology, on the other hand, is generally based on changes in the micro- or macroscopic appear- ance of blood-forming organs; a haematopathological diagnosis mostly de- pends on a histological examination. It took a long time before clinicians (at least in Europe) gave up their hegemony and allowed pathologists to have a say. A good example was the public debate between A. A. Maximow [1]
(Fig. 1), the first haematopathologist of any stature, and O. Naegeli, an in- ternist from Zurich, Switzerland, who accused pathologists of complete in- competence in diagnostic haematology [2] and was applauded by clinical haematologists. Maximow was at a great advantage, however, because he could identify blood and bone marrow cells not only in smears, with which clinicians were familiar, but also in histological sections prepared from bone marrow biopsies. The latter made it possible for him to use an optimum technique. He embedded the biopsy tissue in resin from which he cut ultra- thin sections, which he stained with azure II-eosin; later he added haema- toxylin to the staining. Furthermore, Maximow was blessed with the ability to reproduce exactly what he had seen under the microscope in water colour paintings. Hence it was possible to learn to make haematological diagnoses on sections and smears from his illustrations.
After the death of Maximow in 1928, his work was carried on at the Insti-
tute of Anatomy in Chicago, IL, USA by his successor W. Bloom, whom
M. H. Block considered to be his real teacher [3]. In Germany J. Wienbeck
started using Maximow’s technique during World War II [4]. Unfortunately,
his studies were halted by his sudden death. In 1945 I began using Maxi-
mow’s technique and taught myself to apply it in the study of bone marrow
and lymph nodes by reading Maximow’s comprehensive description in the
handbook edited by P. Stöhr and W. von Möllendorff [1], which was of
excellent didactic quality [5]. Instead of azure II-eosin it soon became evi-
dent that the Giemsa solution produced by Merck (Darmstadt, Germany)
was just as good and much easier to use. Good embedding in paraffin proved
to be sufficient for routine diagnoses. Re-embedding in resin (JB-4; the
method is described in [6]) was performed in special studies, e.g. analyses of
high-grade malignant B-cell lymphomas [7] or of T-cell lymphoma vari-
ants.
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Maximow’s pioneer studies were the impulse for the albeit hesitant de- velopment of the field of haematopathology. The reader may refer to the re- view of R. F. Dorfman in his Maud Abbott Lecture in 1994 [8] for more information about research in this field and also to the brilliant book written by M. M. Wintrobe [9] who competently described the research of most of the haematologists all over the world.
In the USA two research centres were established by H. Rappaport and R. J. Lukes. Their work culminated in two atlases published by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology [10,11]. In Europe A. H. T. Robb-Smith founded the first lymph node registry in 1947 [12]. In 1978 W.St.C. Symmers gave the first monographic description of the pathology of lymphoreticular tissue [13].
There are now several societies that were specifically founded to promote the field of haematopathology. The first was the Japan Society of the Reticulo- endothelial System, founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1960. Its first president was K. Akazaki and the first vice-president was S. Yamagata. The term “retic- uloendothelial system” (RES), which was originally coined by L. Aschoff and co-workers, included all of haematology, including haematopathology.
The first published proceedings of the first general meeting in Sendai, Japan in 1961 focussed on morphological and functional studies of the RES [14]. As time went by the proceedings contained more and more clinical and patho- logical-anatomical studies in the whole field of haematology. Nevertheless, haematopathology continued to be the main focus. In the first eight years the number of members rose to more than 1,000.
In 1981 the Society for Hematopathology was founded in the USA. Its first president was C. W. Berard and the first vice-president was Dorfman.
More about this Society will be presented in a later chapter (see p. 108).
The following report will tell the history of the third haematological soci- ety, known as the European Association for Haematopathology.
In haematopathology nowadays both the practical and the scientific inter- est is focussed mainly on two subjects, namely, the pathology of myeloprolif- erative disorders and malignant lymphomas. In the following I shall concen- trate on the pathology of malignant lymphomas.
1 INTRODUCTION
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Fig. 1 A. MAXIMOW, Etron, 1917 (photograph kindly provided by R. DEYEV, Saint Petersburg, Russia)
1 INTRODUCTION
