Investigation of adenosine deaminase activity in patients with mycosis fungoides

Background and Design: Mycosis fungoides (ME) is a cutaneous T cell lymphoma. The clinical and histopathological diagnosis of early mycosis fungoides is usually difficult. There is no special laboratory method for the diagnosis of ME and this is the most important problem in diagnosis and follow up the effectiveness of treatment. Adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity is a non-specific marker of T cell activation. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the levels of plasma and tissue ADA in patients with mycosis fungoides and to determine if ADA is an activation criterion for this disease. Materials and Methods: The levels of ADA activities in both plasma and tissue were spectrophotometrically measured in 40 patients with ME and compared to those of 33 healthy subjects. Moreover, a subgroup analysis regarding ADA activities was performed in 17 patients who achieved complete remission after different kinds of treatments. Results: Patients with ME had more significantly elevated plasma and tissue ADA activity levels than those of controls (p<0.001 and p<0.001). There was a statistically significant decrease in the plasma and tissue ADA activity levels after remission when compared to initial values in 17 patients revealing complete remission (p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively). While there was no statistically significant difference between MF patients in remission and controls in respect to tissue ADA activities (p>0.05); MF patients in remission were found to have higher plasma levels of ADA activities than those of controls (p<0.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study may provide an important clinical support for showing the roles of plasma and tissue ADA activity levels to predict disease activity in MF patients. In addition, levels of ADA activity measurements might be a marker in follow-up of MF patients.