A Clinicopathological Study of Acute and Chronic Leukemia in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Leukemias are neoplastic proliferations of haematopoietic stem cells and form a major proportion of haematopoietic neoplasms that are diagnosed worldwide. Typing of leukemia is essential for effective therapy because prognosis and survival rate are different for each type and sub-type Aims: this study was carried out to determine the frequency of acute and chronic leukemias and to evaluate their clinicopathological features. Methods: It was a hospital based cross sectional study of 60 patients carried out in the department of Pathology, JMCH, Assam over a period of one year between February 2018 and January 2019. Diagnosis was based on peripheral blood count, peripheral blood smear and bone marrow examination (as on when available marrow sample) for morphology along with cytochemical study whenever possible. Results: In the present study, commonest leukemia was Acute myeloid leukemia (AML, 50%) followed by Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL 26.6%), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML, 16.7%) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL, 6.7%). Out of total 60 cases, 36 were male and 24 were female with Male:Female ratio of 1.5:1. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia was the most common type of leukemia in the children and adolescents. Acute Myeloid leukemia was more prevalent in adults. Peripheral blood smear and bone Conclusion: marrow aspiration study still remains the important tool along with cytochemistry, immunophenotyping and cytogenetic study in the diagnosis and management of leukemia.