A Study of Clinical Haematological and Morphological Features of Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia

Abstract

One hundred and forty three patients of acute myeloblastic leukaemia were diagnosed during a five years period from January 1996 to December 2000 at the haematology Department of King Edward Medical College, Lahore. The clinical, haematological and morphological features of these patients were studied. The case were classified into various FAB types based on morphology and cytochemical stains. Ninety seven (67.83%) of the patients studied were males while 46 (32.16%) were females giving a male to female ratio of 2.1:1. Maximum number of patients were in the 15-25 years age group. Symptoms relating to anemia were present in nearly all patients at presentation while fever was present in 65% patients and bleeding manifestations in 31.4% Hepatomegaly, splenomegaly and lymphadenopathy were seen in 51%, 34.9% and 25% of patients respectively. The peripheral smears of all patients showed the presence of blast cells. M2 was the most frequent FAB type seen and was diagnosed in 47.55% of patients followed by M1 (20.27%), M4 (13.28%) and M3 (11.18%). M6 and M5 were diagnosed in 4.19% and 3.49% of patients respectively.