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The important fodder grass Poa alpina L. occurs at several ploidy levels with common aneuploidy. We isolated and characterized five polymorphic microsatellite markers for the study of molecular genetic variation of this species. As first examples of the value of the developed markers for population genetic analyses, we show that plants with more chromosomes have more microsatellite bands and that isolation by distance plays a small role in shaping microsatellite diversity of P. alpina in the Swiss Alps.

Background and Procedure. We retrospectively studied the type, severity, frequency, and outcome of febrile infectious complications in 217 cancer patients receiving cytotoxic chemotherapy (603 episodes) over a 10-year period in a single pediatric institution. Results. A total of 48.8% of the episodes occurred in severely leukopenic patients (WBC <1.0 × 10 9 /l, absolute neutrophil count <500 × 10 6 /l). In the second half of the study period febrile episodes occurred at increased frequency. The number of patients with gram-positive isolates in blood cultures increased over the years, most frequently coagulase-negative staphylococci were found. Remarkably, gram-negative bacteria increasingly resistant to the administered first-line antibiotic regimen emerged, necessitating modifications of the antimicrobial strategy every 3 years. Furthermore, Clostridium difficile-associated enterocolitis posed a clinical problem at increasing frequency since 1993. As expected, the speed of leukocyte recovery within 5 days from the onset of a febrile complication had an influence on the outcome of these episodes. Conclusions. Rapid recovery of the WBC was associated with an excellent prognosis, whereas persisting neutropenia was found to be a negative factor associated with fatal outcomes. The fatality rate of all febrile episodes (2.3%) remained the same throughout the study period despite the availability and wider use of recombinant hematopoietic growth factors since 1991. Med. Pediatr. Oncol. 32:336-343, 1999.

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