Clinico-Haematological Study of Pancytopenia – An Experience from a Tertiary Care Centre in Western Odisha

Abstract

BACKGROUND Pancytopenia is a relatively common haematological entity with simultaneous presence of anaemia, leucopenia and thrombocytopenia. It is a feature of many medical and haematological disorders like megaloblastic anaemia, drug-induced bone marrow hypoplasia, even fatal leukaemia and bone marrow aplasia. The clinical and haematological studies determine the proper diagnosis and management of patients. Bone marrow examination is an important diagnostic procedure for determining the cause of pancytopenia. This study was conducted to evaluate clinico-haematological findings, identify the causes of pancytopenia, and compare our findings with other similar studies. METHODS The four-year retrospective study was carried out in the Department of Pathology at a tertiary care hospital in western Odisha, India. Data regarding clinical details, peripheral blood and bone marrow aspirations were collected and analyzed using simple statistical methods. RESULTS A total of 131 cases of pancytopenia were studied. The age range of patients was 3 years to 72 years, with a mean of 36.5 years. Male to female ratio was 0.84 : 1. The majority of cases were in the age group of 31 – 40 years (20.61 %). Generalized weakness with pallor (54.96 percent) was the commonest clinical finding, followed by splenomegaly (16.79 %), and hepatomegaly (11.45 %). Aplastic anaemia (43.51 %) was the most common cause found on the bone marrow aspiration followed by megaloblastic anaemia (22.14 %) and haematological malignancies. Among the haematological malignancies, acute myeloid leukaemia was the commonest cause of pancytopenia (10.69 %). CONCLUSIONS Bone marrow aspiration in cytopenic patients helps in understanding the disease process and to diagnose or rule out the causes of cytopenia. Different geographical areas have a different presentation of haematological disorders. KEYWORDS Bone Marrow Aspiration, Pancytopenia, Aplastic Anaemia