Background: The bone marrow examination is an essential investigation for the diagnosis and management of many disorders of the blood and bone marrow. Bone marrow aspiration (BMA) alone is usually sufficient to diagnose nutritional anaemias, and most of the acute leukaemias. Aim was to study the spectrum of haematological disorders diagnosed on bone marrow aspiration.Methods: This study was conducted in the Department of Clinical Haematology in Sher e Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Kashmir for a period of 2 years from December 2015 to December 2017. Bone marrow examination of 2131 cases of suspected hematological disorders was carried out. Bone marrow was aspirated from posterior superior iliac spine under local anaesthesia. Aspirates of dry tap were excluded from the study. Aspiration smears where stained with Leishmann stain for morphological examination.Results: A total of 2131 cases were included in this study. Male to female ratio in our study was 1.9:1. The age range of cases was from 1-80 years and the mean age was 47.3 years. Anemia was the most common haematological disorder in our study accounting for 25.6% of cases followed by acute leukaemia accounting for 22.3% and multiple myeloma (13.3%). Among anemias, megaloblastic anemia was most common followed by dual deficieny anemia. Among leukaemias, acute myeloid leukaemia (13.2%) was more common than acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (9.1%).Conclusions: Bone marrow aspiration cytology is a mildly invasive technique which can diagnose many hematological and non-hematologic diseases that can be confirmed by more advanced investigations viz. serological, biochemical or molecular. It is a highly informative test procedure performed for evaluating blood and blood related diseases in our environment.

Purpose:To highlight the acceptable results seen after use of low dose cytarabine in elderly patients of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with comorbidities.Materials and Methods:This was a prospective study carried on 30 newly diagnosed patients of AML over 60 years of age who were unfit for standard treatment regimens. We did not use azacytidine and decitabine in our patients because these therapeutic modalities being extremely costly and our patient affordability being poor. After taking patient consent and institutional ethical clearance these patients were treated with 20 mg/m2 cytarabine subcutaneously in two divided doses 12 h apart for 4 days every week for 4 weeks which constituted a cycle before disease, re-assessment was done. A repeat cycle was administered where ever needed and after attainment of remission, we continued low dose cytarabine for 2 days/week as maintenance after complete or partial response was documented.Results:In our study, we found that around 20% of patients achieved complete remission and 30% partial remission. The remission rates were definitely influenced by counts at presentation, performance at presentation, comorbidities, underlying myelodysplastic syndrome and baseline cytogenetics.Conclusion:Low dose cytarabine is effective treatment option for elderly patients with AML when standard treatment options are not warranted.

Acute erythroleukemia is characterized by a predominant immature erythroid population and accounts for approximately 2-5 % of all cases of acute leukemia. Two subtypes are recognized based on the presence or absence of a significant myeloid component: erythroleukemia and pure erythroid leukemia. Erythroleukemia is predominantly a disease of adults, while pure erythroid leukemia can be seen in any age including children. Here is a case of pure erythroleukemia presenting mainly as late erythroblasts which was diagnosed on bone marrow examination, cytochemistry and was confirmed on immunophenotyping. Possibly this is the only case so for demonstrating deletion of long arm of chromosome 20 in pure erythroleukemia.

Background: Pancytopenia refers to combination of anaemia, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia. It may be a manifestation of a wide variety of disorders, which primarily or secondarily affect the bone marrow. However, aetiology of pancytopenia varies from one geographical region to another. Bone marrow aspiration plays an important role in identifying the cause of pancytopenia. This study was carried to identify the causes of pancytopenia and to find out the bone marrow morphology in cases of pancytopenia.Methods: This study was conducted in the department of haematology in a tertiary care center in Kashmir valley for a period of 3 years. Inclusion criteria: cases with hemoglobin less than 10 gm/dl, total leucocyte count of less than 4000/mm3 and platelet count less than 100,000/mm3 were included in the study.Exclusion criteria: Patients receiving chemotherapy/radiotherapy were excluded from the study. Bone marrow aspiration (BMA) was performed from posterior iliac crest of the patients. Bone marrow aspiration smears were stained with Leishman stain for microscopy.Results: A total of 334 cases were studied during a period of 3 years. Age of patients ranged from 1 year to 85 years with mean of 43.59 years.180 cases were male, and 154 cases were female with male:female ratio of 1.2 :1. The commonest cause of pancytopenia was megaloblastic anemia seen in 103 cases (30.8%) followed by dual deficiency anemia seen in 69 cases (20.7%).37 cases (11%) were of acute leukaemia. Aplastic anemia was seen in 35 cases(10.5%). Other causes of pancytopenia were myelodysplastic syndrome, multiple myeloma, iron deficiency anemia and hypersplenism.Conclusions: Bone marrow aspiration in patients of pancytopenia helps in the identification of the underlying cause in most of the cases. BMA is helpful for understanding the disease process; and in planning further investigations and management of cytopenia patients.

No abstract