A 2 year study of clinico-hematological profile of bicytopenia and pancytopenia in paediatric patients attending a tertiary hospital in South India

Abstract

Pancytopenia is the decrease in all three cell lines of blood and bicytopenia is decrease in any two out of the three lineages. This study aims to describe the clinical and hematology profiles of bicytopenia and pancytopenia in children less than 12 years and to determine the underlying aetiologies.To describe the different aetiologies of bicytopenia and pancytopenia in paediatric patients based on clinical and haematological profiles including peripheral blood and bone marrow examination. It was a descriptive study and 117 patients with pancytopenia/bicytopenia admitted in a tertiary care center in central Kerala during the study period (January 2015 – December 2016) were evaluated clinically, along with hematological parameters.Bi/pancytopenia mostly affected children older than 9 years of age. Most common clinical symptoms were fever followed by pallor and bleeding; and sign was hepatomegaly . Anemia with thrombocytopenia was the most common bicytopenia seen. The most common underlying cause was infection followed by acute leukemia and aplastic anemia.Cytopenia presenting with fever, pallor and bleeding with organomegaly after exclusion of infections and combined disease processes signify underlying bone marrow disorders /malignancies which warrants thorough work up.