ABSTRACT
We report two cases of adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia presenting with preleukemic phase of pancytopenia with a few abnormal lymphoid cells in bone marrow aspirates. The initial diagnosis of each case was suspicious aplastic anemia and hypoplastic anemia. Both cases progressed to overt acute lymphoblastic leukemia within 1 year. We suggest that initial pancytopenic phase (pre-ALL) may precede the diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults and differential diagnosis from myelodysplastic syndrome and primary aplastic anemia will be needed. We also suggest that primary bone marrow lymphoma and "primary unknown metastatic lymphoma of bone marrow" may be possible as the pathogenesis in a case like ours.
Subject(s)
Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Anemia, Aplastic/diagnosis , Bone Marrow/pathology , Diagnosis, Differential , Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/etiology , Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/diagnosis , Myelodysplastic Syndromes/diagnosis , Pancytopenia/etiology , Pancytopenia/diagnosis , Preleukemia/etiology , Preleukemia/diagnosisABSTRACT
The clinical data and hematological features of 29 children, under the age of 12 years, with primary myelodysplasia are presented. The diagnosis was made using the FAB (French-American-British) Cooperative Group criteria. There were 24 males and 5 females aged 4 months to 12 years (median 2.5 years) with marked male preponderance. Childhood myelodysplasia constituted 16% of all hematological malignancies and 36.7% of acute myeloid leukemias. The median duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis was 3 months. There were 15 cases of refractory anemia, one of refractory anemia with excess blasts, 3 of refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation and 10 cases of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. Five patients evolved to acute myeloid and 4 to acute lymphatic leukemia. The median duration of preleukemic phase in these patients was 7 months (range 4-29 months). The overall mean survival was short (5-9 months) in all the subgroups. Besides supportive therapy in most patients, two patients were treated with etoposide, one with alfa interferon 2b and one with high dose methylprednisolone. Our results show that myelodysplasia is not infrequent in children. The disease has an aggressive clinical course and may evolve into acute leukemia.
Subject(s)
Child , Child, Preschool , Developing Countries , Diagnosis, Differential , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , India , Infant , Leukemia/diagnosis , Male , Myelodysplastic Syndromes/etiology , Preleukemia/diagnosis , Survival RateSubject(s)
Child, Preschool , Humans , Female , Leukemia , Bone Marrow/pathology , Preleukemia , Leukemia/diagnosis , Leukemia/therapy , Preleukemia/diagnosis , Preleukemia/drug therapyABSTRACT
A 19 year old woman presented as a case of haemolytic anaemia due to multi-enzyme deficiency of the erythrocyte. After a transient improvement with folic acid therapy, she developed acute myeloblastic leukaemia. This is the second reported case of a myelodysplastic syndrome presenting with a haemolytic picture and subsequently developing an acute myeloblastic leukaemia.